Plastic pallet grades, in plain words

Grades in plain words

No universal plastic grading standard exists. Suppliers use their own words, and so does this desk. The five grades below are the ones that sell. Broken and pool-marked lots are handled elsewhere: broken decks are scrap, and marked pallets are the pool's.

Two more outcomes

How a manufacturer-distributor scales it

One manufacturer-distributor offers a four-step condition scale on its seller form: Like New, Very Good, Good and Average. It accepts US locations only, and says offers depend on location, design, condition and market demand. A marketplace filters by footprint, condition and ZIP radius. This desk folds all of that into five grades and a ruling.

Words you will meet

Regrind

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

Euro pallet

800 x 1200 mm footprint.

Resin identification code

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

Rotational moulding

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

Welding repair

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

HDPE

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

Virgin resin

New, unblended resin that has not been through a product before.

Cruciform base

Bottom with a cross-shaped member as well as a perimeter, for strength and automated handling.

4-way entry

Forks or a jack can enter from all four sides.

2-way entry

Forks enter from two opposite sides only.

ISPM 15

The international standard for treating wood packaging against pests. Plastic pallets are outside it.

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.

Structural foam

Low-pressure moulding where a blowing agent expands the resin in the mould.

Profile extrusion

Pushing resin through a die to make long shapes that form pallet parts.

GMA pallet

The 48 x 40 in North American standard footprint.

Who asks, and what they need

Plastic recyclers and pallet makers

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

Distribution centres with surplus pallets

Sell or recycle excess lots, mixed makers and colours, broken pallets.

Automotive plants and suppliers

48 x 45 pallets that match bulk containers; closed-loop reuse; heavy dynamic and static loads.

What the sources say

• Plastic pallets are made by injection molding, structural foam molding, thermoforming, compression molding, rotational molding and profile extrusion. (en.wikipedia.org)
• In April 2017, HDPE HMW regrind from drums and IBCs was 24 to 27 cents per pound picked up in the US South (historical, not current). (resource-recycling.com)
• 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)
• The five states with the largest gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025 were California (400 million cubic feet), Georgia (304 million), Washington (301 million), Wisconsin (297 million) and Texas (254 million), per USDA NASS. (esmis.nal.usda.gov)
• FDA's Food Traceability Rule (FSMA section 204) requires businesses that make, process, pack or hold foods on the Food Traceability List to keep Key Data Elements for Critical Tracking Events and share them within 24 hours of a request; FDA says Congress directed it not to enforce the rule before July 20, 2028. (fda.gov)
• Pallet capacities are issued by the manufacturer from calculation and lab or field tests, and assume an evenly distributed load. (nelsoncompany.com)
• About 500 million pallets are made each year as of 2020, with about 2 billion in use in the US. (en.wikipedia.org)
• FM 4996 passes a pallet if fire is controlled at 5.9 mm/min (0.15 GPM/ft2) within a 10-minute test of eight 1.2 m stacks. (iccsafe.org)
• UL 2335 has an idle pallet test and a commodity storage test. (iccsafe.org)
• For products touching the pallet directly, stricter federal requirements may call for non-blended virgin HDPE; recycled pallets often meet general FDA needs. (nelsoncompany.com)
• Nestable pallets can cut empty-pallet storage space by up to 75 percent. (blog.containerexchanger.com)
• Cabka says plastic export pallets are exempt from ISPM-15 treatment, that there is no single export size, and that its nestable export designs include extra-lightweight and air-freight versions. (cabka.com)
• USDA NASS counted 3.99 billion cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity in the US on October 1, 2025, with usable capacity of 3.25 billion cubic feet (82 percent of gross). (esmis.nal.usda.gov)
• Port of Long Beach moved a record 9,881,595 TEUs in 2025 (imports 4,779,559; exports 1,141,113; empties 3,960,925), per Container News reporting the port's year-end results. (container-news.com)
• Port Houston's public terminals handled 4,303,345 TEUs in 2025 (up 4 percent, a record) and 54,491,066 short tons of cargo; the Houston Ship Channel is described as the nation's largest port for waterborne tonnage, with more than 200 private and eight public terminals. (porthouston.com)
• Port Houston says it supports 1.54 million jobs in Texas and 3.37 million nationwide, and that its 2025 growth included petrochemical and industrial shipments, manufacturing-related freight and consumer imports. (porthouston.com)

• Nelson Company: sell used pallets
• Container Exchanger: plastic pallets wanted
• Nelson Company: used HDPE pallet model

Keep reading

• Sell
• New, unused
• Like new
• Used, sound and clean
• Used, repaired
• Used, mixed lot