The pickup desk
Reel pickup and buyback desk
The desk collects empty cable reels from yards, docks and job sites in the District, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia: nailed wood, plywood, mixed brands and part loads that no maker's program will take. Send a count and a flange size, and the reply tells you whether the reels are bought, collected or recycled, before anything is booked.
From the reel desk · Checked 9 November 2026
What the desk takes
Almost every reel a job or a yard ends up with:
- Nailed wood reels, any size from about 23 to 96 inches, sound or damaged.
- Plywood reels, which no maker program we have read will take back.
- Mixed brands, so a yard does not have to sort reels by stencil into separate loads.
- Part loads: three reels from a rowhouse job, twenty from a fit-out, a few dozen from a utility yard.
- Plastic and polyfiber reels, kept apart from the wood.
- Lagging: the boards that protected the cable in transit, if they are sound.
What the desk does not take is anything that belongs to someone else. Steel reels shipped under a returnable policy go back to their makers; Southwire's, for one, carry a charge that is credited only when the reel comes back within 12 months. Wooden reels are usually one-way. Southwire's are listed as non-returnable with no deposit.
Take-back first
Before the desk takes a reel, it asks whether the maker would. AFL (through Sonoco EcoReel) and Service Wire both publish take-back programs, and Sonoco runs its own. All three want full truckloads of sound nailed reels; AFL and Service Wire start at a 30 inch flange, and Service Wire takes only its own labelled reels. If your yard holds a full truck of one maker's qualifying reels, the right call is that maker, at no cost to you. The desk will say so.
Most yards in this region never get there. A distributor branch in Lanham, a contractor's lot in Chantilly, a data-centre close-out in Ashburn with four brands mixed together: these are the loads that fall between the programs, and they are what the desk is for.
Three routes
- Sell. Sound nailed reels in sizes people want, usually 30 to 60 inches with flat flanges, a round arbor hole and full staves, go back to work as working reels or as tables. Those can be bought.
- Collect. Reels that are reusable but not worth much on their own, or loads where the truck costs more than the reels are worth, are collected and placed where they will be used.
- Recycle. Rotten, broken and delaminated reels are taken apart. Sound boards are kept, steel hardware is scrapped, and the rest goes to wood recycling.
If you are not sure which route your reels need, choose "Pick up reels, not sure which" on the request and the desk will sort it out from your photos.
What the reply depends on
How many reels, what sizes, what condition, where they are, and how they get onto a truck. A dozen 48-inch nailed reels on a Beltsville lot with a forklift is a different job from three plywood reels in a District alley. The desk does not publish a price list because the same reel can be worth money in one yard and cost money to collect from another.
The pages below
Each page under the pickup desk covers one kind of request in detail, from a single reel to a standing schedule for a distributor branch.
Sell empty reels
Sell your empty cable reels
Tell the desk the count, flange size and condition of your empty wooden reels; reusable reels are bought, the rest go to recycling.
How a pickup works
How a cable reel pickup works
Four steps from a stack of reels to a clear yard: count and measure, confirm what is reusable, schedule the truck, load out.
Laydown yard clear-outs
Clearing a laydown yard of empty reels
Clearing empty reels from a construction laydown yard at close-out in Loudoun, Prince William, DC or suburban Maryland: mixed brands welcome.
Recurring pickup
Recurring reel pickup
A standing pickup for wire and cable distributor branches, contractor shops and utility yards that empty reels every week or month.
Reel recycling
Recycling broken cable reels
Reels too broken to reuse are recycled, not landfilled: what happens to the wood, the nails and the steel hardware, and how to send them.
Plywood and mixed reels
Plywood and mixed-brand reels the maker won't take
Take-back programs refuse plywood reels and other makers' brands. Send the desk your plywood and mixed reels, one or a hundred.
What to put in a request
- Count and measure. Count the reels and measure the largest flange edge to edge across the face. A photo with the tape in it is better than a guess.
- Check the build. Nailed lumber, plywood sheet, steel or plastic. Look for a stencil or tag naming the maker and the reel number.
- Set aside steel and tagged returnables with their serial numbers. Those go back to the maker, not to the desk.
- Say where they stand: yard, dock, garage level, alley or curb, plus clearance, gate hours, badging or escort a driver needs.
- Say what loads them: forklift, pallet jack, loader, ramp, or only people. Reels over 42 inches weigh more than 100 lb empty.
- Say how often: one time, weekly, monthly or at each job close-out.
- Buying instead? Give the flange and height you want, how many, and how the reel gets from the truck to where it will sit.
- No form handy? Email info@dcwoodenspools.com with the same details and a few photos.
Reels you are likely to have
| Reel | Build | Flange | Traverse | Drum | Lb | Usually carries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-5 | Nailed wood | 23 | 17 | 12 | 34 | Copper building wire, grounding |
| A-10 | Nailed wood | 30 | 22 | 16 | 66 | Service drop, bare aluminium |
| N-24 | Nailed wood | 36 | 28 | 14 | 83 | Insulated and multiplex cable |
| A-29 | Nailed wood | 42 | 28 | 21 | 154 | Overhead conductor, feeders |
| A-38 | Nailed wood | 48 | 28 | 24 | 212 | Aluminium and ACSR, large feeders |
| A-62 | Nailed wood | 60 | 28 | 28 | 397 | Utility conductor |
| A-76 | Nailed wood | 66 | 28 | 30 | 473 | Heavy conductor |
| S-120 | Steel, returnable | 84 | 36 | 42 | 895 | Transmission and medium voltage |
Other makers' reels differ by an inch or two. All flange sizes · How to measure
Questions the desk gets
Does the desk pay for empty reels?
For sound, reusable reels it often does. Broken reels and loads that cost more to move than they are worth are collected or recycled instead. The reply to your request says which before anything is booked.
What does the desk not take?
Returnable steel reels and reels tagged for return, which belong to their makers, and reels with a lot of cable still on them, which are a different conversation. Send a photo if you are not sure.
Sources
Each opened and read on 9 November 2026.
- AFL, Wood Reel Recycling Program: nailed wood only, no plywood; flanges at least 1½ in thick and 30 in across; 75% of staves; full truckloads; mainly East Coast and Midwest
- Service Wire, Reel Return: Service Wire labelled nailed wood reels with 30 to 72 in flanges, full truckloads only
- Sonoco, EcoReel Recycling Program: free pickup of truckloads of viable nailed wood and polyfiber reels; reels repaired and returned to wire and cable makers; reels-per-truckload table
- Southwire, Reel Packaging Information (CableTech Support): reel series, wooden reel dimensions and weights, steel reel dimensions and charges, tag contents; cites NEMA WC26