Turning old pallets into winter warmth

For the last six years, Glenn Roberts has been helping Victory residents stoke their fires with free firewood.

Once a week on a random day, he, along with Roxy the dog, picks up discarded wooden pallets from various businesses, chops them up, and puts them in a skip behind the Victory shops for people to help themselves to.

The idea was sparked when Glenn owned Nelson Heating and Cooling and ended up with “stacks” of wooden pallets every week.

Every year, it is estimated that 150 million pallets end up in landfills. But, 99.9 per cent of wooden pallets in New Zealand have no chemical treatment present, so they are perfect for burning.

“We used to get all our heat pumps on wooden pallets, so I used to take them home and cut them up for our fire,” Glenn says.

When he got out of the heat pump business, he thought he’d keep doing it - but for the community instead.

“I enjoy doing it, it’s therapeutic cutting wood, and I just had this idea of doing it as a hobby.”

He approached the Koha Shed at the Victory Community Centre to see if they could house a donated skip that he could fill up with the pallet wood once a week.

And, it was an immediate hit, helping many to keep their homes warm and offset winter heating costs.

When the Koha Shed closed its doors earlier this year, Glenn found a new spot for the skip - just around the corner, behind the Victory Discounter Dairy.

Glenn says the pallets come from “all over the place” and there certainly isn’t a lack of them.

He gets them from various businesses, including his own business, Glenn Roberts Electrical. He also picks a few up from Manuka Street Hospital.

“They have lovely ones too, the Rolls Royce of pallets with the nice big block corners on them.”

Glenn says he can fit up to 12 pallets in his bright yellow Holden SS ute.

Once he’s collected a load of them, he heads up to The Brook where he’s set up next to the community garden to chop the wood into pieces. Once this is done, he loads all the wood back into his ute, and off to the skip it goes.

He says the wood always gets snapped up very quickly, especially in the winter.

“You put it in, and it’s gone the next day. I don’t even know who comes and gets it. I hope it’s for single mums and refugees who don’t know where to get it from. It’s expensive.

“But now and then I hear of someone who got some wood and how much they’ve appreciated it. The odd person has come over and given me $20 for petrol.”

Glenn says it’s important for him to give back to the community - and it’s in his blood, with his parents being very civic-minded, too.

“I’ve enjoyed cutting the pallets up and burning them, and I’m sure everyone else will enjoy them too.”