Damaged pallets in a good lot

Three kinds of damage

The sort

1. 1

   Press and look

   Press along the deck and runners. Look for cracks and chips. Check every foot.

2. 2

   Split three ways

   Sound, repaired, broken. Keep each pile apart.

3. 3

   Check marks on the broken

   A broken pool pallet is still the pool's. Pull it into the marked lane.

4. 4

   Weigh or count the scrap

   Scrap is sold by weight. If you can weigh a stack, do.

Why the line is the crack

One buyer considers pallets with cracks, chips or missing pieces to be scrap. A recycler buys broken decks by weight, grinding them to regrind. Sorting by resin and colour helps it. Whole pallets inside a scrap pile are valued as scrap, so do not let the piles mix.

The form fields this guide fills

• Condition
• Message

How this guide ends

Words you will meet

Resin identification code

Number on a plastic part for the resin, which does not itself say whether it is recyclable.

HDPE

High-density polyethylene, resin code 2. The most common resin in plastic pallets; tough and moisture resistant.

Static load

Weight a pallet carries at rest, or the bottom pallet carries when stacked. The highest of the three ratings.

Nestable

Empty pallets stack inside one another, cutting empty storage space by up to 75 percent.

Captive pallet

A pallet owned and kept inside one company or loop.

Welding repair

Plastic is hard to glue, so cracked parts are normally welded.

Regrind

Plastic ground from used or scrap parts into flakes for moulding again.

Recycled-content pallet

A pallet moulded partly or wholly from post-industrial or post-consumer resin.

Dynamic load

Weight a pallet carries while moving on a forklift, pallet jack or conveyor.

Racking load

Weight a pallet carries bridging an open span in unsupported racking. Often the lowest rating.

UL 2335

UL fire-test standard for storage pallets, with an idle pallet test and a commodity storage test.

Commodity classification

Sprinkler design class of stored goods; an unlisted plastic pallet can raise it.

Injection moulding

Pallet made by forcing molten resin into a mould at high pressure.

Thermoforming

Heated plastic sheet formed over a mould; lighter pallets.

Rotational moulding

Resin heated in a rotating mould to make a hollow jointless part.

PP

Polypropylene. More rigid than HDPE and better with heat and harsh chemicals; used where rack stiffness matters.

Who asks, and what they need

Chemical and drum shippers

48 x 48 and 45 x 45 pallets for drums and bags; chemical resistance.

Retailers that collect pooled or one-way pallets

Stacks of marked and unmarked pallets left by suppliers; need to know which can be sold and which belong to a pool.

Plastic recyclers and pallet makers

Buy broken pallets by weight as HDPE or PP feedstock; want clean, sorted, separated by resin and colour.

What the sources say

• Greystone Logistics processed about 60 million pounds of recycled plastic in the year ended May 31, 2024, using damaged plastic pallets from a buy-back program among its feedstock. (resource-recycling.com)
• HDPE has resin identification code 2, a density of 930 to 970 kg/m3, melts at 131.8 C and is hard to glue, so joints are usually welded. (en.wikipedia.org)
• HDPE is the most common resin in plastic pallets; PP is more rigid and the page recommends it for unsupported racking. (nelsoncompany.com)
• Resin identification codes do not indicate whether a product is recyclable; ASTM D7611 governs the coding. (en.wikipedia.org)
• In December 2011 a Los Angeles County Sheriff task force recovered over $250,000 of illegally obtained plastic pallets, including iGPS pallets, from a plastic recycler. (eponline.com)
• Rehrig Pacific offers the standard-duty nestable with recycled content of up to 90 percent in black, and describes it as 100 percent recyclable. (rehrigpacific.com)
• Plastic pallets weigh about 3 to 15 lb when light and up to 300 lb when heavy; a typical GMA wood pallet weighs about 37 lb. (en.wikipedia.org)
• Plastic pallets are often described as lasting 100 trips or more, and can cost roughly 10 times as much as hardwood pallets. (en.wikipedia.org)
• Plastic pallets are made by injection molding, structural foam molding, thermoforming, compression molding, rotational molding and profile extrusion. (en.wikipedia.org)
• The 48 x 40 in GMA pallet makes up about 30 percent of new US wood pallets. (en.wikipedia.org)
• Metal pallets are under 1 percent of the pallet market. (en.wikipedia.org)
• The International Fire Code permits pallets listed and labeled under FM 4996 or UL 2335 to be treated as wood pallets for sprinkler design. (iccsafe.org)
• CHEP USA sued two California recyclers over CHEP-marked pallets they would not return; a Los Angeles court granted CHEP's motion to retrieve pallets in one case (article dated February 1, 2024). (palletenterprise.com)
• Rehrig Pacific's heavy-duty nestable can be made with post-consumer or post-industrial recycled material, up to 30 percent in black and up to 10 percent in colour, and is RFID compatible. (rehrigpacific.com)
• Nelson Company defines dynamic capacity as the load a pallet carries in motion, always below static; static as the load at rest and the bottom pallet's limit in a stack; racking as the load across an open rack span, often the lowest and given only for pallets designed for it. (nelsoncompany.com)
• Fastmarkets estimates 3.7 billion pallets were in circulation in the US in 2025, and that annual pallet production rose from about 800 million before the pandemic to nearly one billion afterward. (fastmarkets.com)

• Nelson Company: sell used pallets
• Wikipedia: Resin identification code
• Resource Recycling: Greystone results

Keep reading

• Guides
• Mixed lots
• Photos buyers want
• Checking for markings
• Sell
• Sort your pile