- What Are Plastic Pallets?
- Types Of Plastic Pallets
- Advantages Of Plastic Pallets
- New Plastic Pallets Vs. Used Plastic Pallets
- Do I Need A Seatbelt For A Plastic Pallet?
- The Difference Between Stackable And Rackable Plastic Pallets
Plastic pallets are the preferred choice by many warehouses, manufacturers, and companies with a need to ship products over long distances.
If you’re considering using plastic pallets, there are many reasons why plastic should be chosen over wood.
What Are Plastic Pallets?
Pallets are a structure built flat which look similarly like suspended flooring and which allow for mechanical handling of goods via a forklift, front loader, or jack.
They are most recognizably made from wood although they can also be made from plastic.
Types of Plastic Pallets
There are several types of plastic pallets, including most commonly drum, export, display plastic pallets, spill control plastic pallets, hygienic, RFID pallets, anti-static, shipping pallets, and transport plastic pallets.
Each takes on a different application. Design-wise, there are differences between those which are stackable or rackable. They can also be manufactured from different plastic materials, including recyclable plastics.
Advantages of Plastic Pallets
There are many advantages to using plastic pallets for your business and several reasons why they’re selected over wood.
Design Of Plastic Pallets
The plastic pallet design varies according to the need. The high-grade HDPE or PP plastic material is UV stabilized.
Plastic is very lightweight, weighing approximately 70 percent less than wood, which means lower shipping costs.
Cost Of Plastic Pallets
As a long-term investment, the average plastic pallet will last 10 times longer than a wood pallet. Plastic pallets are weather-resistant, chemical resistant, and impervious to weak acids and moisture – unlike wood.
Durability
Plastic is strong and durable, able to support a variety of shipping, transport, and storage needs.
Plastic pallets are 100% recyclable and reusable, which makes them significantly more eco-friendly than wood. If they’re stackable, you can save on space in a way wooden pallets don’t allow.
Plastic doesn’t have any splinters, nails sticking out, or sharp edges which makes them easier to handle and hazard-free.
New Pallets vs. Used Pallets
You can buy plastic pallets completely new or recycled and/or refurbished.
A recycled plastic pallet from Green Processing Company uses high-density polyethylene (HDPE), HDPE structural foam, polypropylene (PP), high molecular weight polyethylene (HMW-PE), and PP/HDPE.
The process of recycling plastic to form pallets starts with inspecting for contaminants, such as metal or paper.
Then, we clean them, shred them in a powerful plastic shredder, and then the ground plastic is stored until a full load is ready. At that time, the shreds are inserted into an injection mold, heated, and cooled. This is how we recycle more than 50 million pounds of plastics annually.
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Do I Need a Seatbelt for a Plastic Pallet?
A lot of people may not be aware that plastic pallets can come with a seatbelt system included.
Seatbelt straps eliminate the need for plastic stretch wrap as well as the banding sometimes responsible for injuries and landfill waste.
For automotive manufacturing companies and others where seatbelts like these are common, you can achieve a lower cost-per-trip and improve expendable packaging numbers. Green Processing Company has pallets with no seatbelts, some with one, and others with two.
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The Difference Between Stackable and Rackable Plastic Pallets
Stackable plastic pallets are most commonly used in warehouses and in closed loop shipping.
Stackables enable a company to stack products one on top of the other, without the risk of a pallet falling or slipping.
There are also rackable pallets that are best suited for use if you’re using a rack.
These are designed to be placed on a rack with no interference. They’re typically used when a heavy load is required to be held and/or to save more space on the containers warehousing floor.
Some of the key differences to weigh as to whether stackables or rackables are most appropriate for you to begin with load capacity. Rackables can carry a much heavier load compared to stackables.
Rackables are generally easier to clean although both pallet types can be cleaned. Stackables are usually best for warehousing, processing, and manufacturing, as opposed to rackables which are built better for heavy-duty loads, for long-distance shipping, and/or for a complex returnable supply chain environment.
Green Processing Company is an industrial packaging solutions company that has helped dozens of companies switch to plastic to manufacture, move, and store product.
Plastic has become the preferred method of storage and delivery for several industries, used by the automotive industry most prominently.
High quality in design, eco-friendly, and always with reliable performance, you’ll be glad you purchased plastic pallets for your business.
Need help? Contact a representative at Green Processing Company today.
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