Written by M. Alvarez, Operations
The single most-asked question on our quote forms is some version of 'what does grade B actually mean?' The honest answer is that it varies between recyclers, which is exactly why we wrote our own grading rubric and stapled it to every dock door in our building. Here is what each grade looks like in plain English, with the level of detail you need to plan your receiving operation.
Grade A — once-used, clean.
A grade-A gaylord has been on exactly one trip in its life. Its flaps are intact and original. Its walls show no scuffing beyond what you would expect from being moved by a forklift. There is no label residue, no Sharpie marks, no stains, no wax bleed, no tape pulls. If you stood it next to a brand-new box, the only way to tell them apart would be the absence of a printer's color stripe on the inside of the flap.
Grade B — lightly used, structural.
Grade B is our best-seller. These boxes have been on two or three trips. They show their age — there might be label residue, a scrape on one wall, a faint stamp from a previous owner, maybe a flap that has been re-taped once. Structurally they are indistinguishable from new for almost any application that does not involve presenting the box to a customer.
Grade C — visibly worked, sound.
A grade-C box has done four or more trips and looks it. It has dock rash. It has multiple stamps. The flaps may have been re-taped twice. It is still load-rated and structurally sound — we would not call it a grade if it were not — but it is unambiguously a used box. We sell grade C to companies that need internal dunnage, scrap consolidation, or moving boxes that are just going to be filled and dumped a few more times before the end.
What is NOT a grade.
Anything we cannot rate goes to the baler. We do not ship grade-D or grade-E boxes to customers without an explicit conversation, and the only reason that conversation ever happens is when a customer specifically asks for the cheapest possible pallet of dunnage and is fine with retaped, scuffed, semi-structural stock. Even then, we put it in writing first.