Tim Garrison is owner of Garrison Pallet, a reclaimed wood furniture business called Reclaimed Woods, and his newest wood-related business, Wise Reclamation. All three companies work together to take full advantage of the wood waste recovery stream. Garrison Pallet specializes in the manufacture of new pallets and the repair of used pallets, all made of post-consumer wood, and sells both new and used pallets and cut stock lumber.
Pallet Enterprise: You own several different companies that really take advantage of used wood. Tell us about them.
Garrison: We look at the wood waste stream and are always trying to extract value out of it through all three businesses. We have a retail store, Reclaimed Woods, in San Diego that sells reclaimed wood and furniture made from reclaimed wood, or we put wood back into the packaging arena with pallets and crates at Garrison Pallet in Chehalis, Washington. Then we have a new company called Wise Reclamation that’s based in Woodburn, Oregon, that’s looking for a new alternative for using post-consumer wood waste that’s normally sent to the grinder.
Pallet Enterprise: How did you first get into the pallet industry and why did you get back into it after stepping out for a decade?
Garrison: My dad owned a pallet company and that’s how I got into it. I got out of it for a while, and I got back in it because when I show up to work there’s a pretty clear ‘why.’ You know, I’ve done other gigs and ran some other businesses along the way, and really the only reason I show up to those other businesses is to make money. I own four or five other businesses now outside of the pallet company, but when I show up to the pallet company and I’m trying to put a deal together and figure out a way to use chip and not just burn it, I feel good about it. I’m here trying to make a difference in our environment and that’s what I love about the pallet industry. There’s a real clear, concise ‘why’ I do this.
Pallet Enterprise: When did you start to focus on recycling and sustainability?
Garrison: Well, I sold my original pallet company, Oregon Pallet, about 15 years ago and I did barnwood reclamation work for 10-12 years, and I really enjoyed it. But then I realized there are some real synergies that are not being taken advantage of between the pallet industry and other wood-related industries. For example, we would take a lot of lumber and cut the top half-inch off it – that cool, worn-looking stuff. Well, this makes beautiful siding for barrels for 10 Barrel Brewing, one of our customers, but then the rest of that beam would just get discarded. So, now what we do is cut that into pallets. And it works the other way too. The pallet company might get a beautiful piece of wood that we think would make a cool table. For 14 years, we’ve been making conference tables and cool furniture using reclaimed wood from old barns, wood bridges, anything you can imagine.
Pallet Enterprise: Tell us more about the focus of your new company?
Garrison: Our biggest pursuit right now is post-consumer wood pulp and how to take this stuff that ends up going into our grinder and use it. We can’t sell it retail. We can’t sell it as a package component. It just doesn’t fit those two uses. So, how do we recycle that now and not just send it off to get burned? Because that’s what happens with a lot of the chips in the world. We’re working with several tissue companies right now to see if we can take this urban wood and make it clean enough and the right size so that these companies can make it into 100% post-consumer wood pulp. This is very different than what paper towels and paper products are made of right now. They’re using old paper and breaking that down with chemicals, but the fibers are so short that they have to do a lot of work to make it into a paper product like paper towels or toilet paper. But the fibers on urban wood are so long and the cellulose are so big that the manufacturers love it. They just can’t get it clean enough without metal, but we’re working on it. We’re going to make that work here soon.
Pallet Enterprise: Do you think there’s a market for these products?
Garrison: I think there’s a market out there, and I have the money behind it, if I can just get a proof of concept. I think we can roll it out, and we’d have 100% post-consumer wood paper products. I think there are a lot of people that rip off those paper towels who would say, “Man, this roll of paper towels is 25 cents more, but I know they didn’t cut down trees for this.’ There’s enough post-consumer wood waste that covers that completely. We’ve been making paper here at the plant, just doing R & D, and it turns out fine. It’s just not bleached white.
