11 Advantages of Plastic Pallets To Help Your Supply Chain
04 Dec 2018
If you operate a business, one of the hardest challenges is optimising efficiency in the supply chain freight. We have outlined 11 advantages of plastic pallets to help your supply chain but reducing costs:
Plastic pallets are exempt from ISPM 15 regulations
The International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures number 15 is a regulation that requires all wooden pallets to be heat treated and to a thickness of 6mm when shipping between two or more different countries. This regulation is in place to help to prevent the spread of insects or diseases.
Plastic pallets however, are exempt from ISPM 15 regulations, and will therefore save you money from having to heat treat your pallets before being able to ship them to a different country.
Lightweight product handling equipment
Weight is a main requirement to ensure you abide by when shipping or loading products within the supply chain. A pallet can add to the load if it is too heavy, however plastic pallets are significantly more lightweight than wooden pallets.
The advantages of plastic pallets to help your supply chain through being lightweight are:
- Save costs in shipping
- Handle the product easier
Environmentally friendly
Not only are plastic pallets lightweight and exempt from ISPM 15 regulations, they are also environmentally friendly. Plastic pallets are molded from the ISO 14001 Standards, which makes them the perfect choice for environmentally conscious companies. Using plastic pallets instead of wooden pallets saves the number of trees being cut down and turned into pallets and it also encourages the upcycle of plastic.
Plastic pallets can be recycled, through reusing the same pallet multiple times due to its long lifespan or through reheating the pallet and remodeling it back into a new pallet.
Save space
Plastic pallets are commonly known as being stackable and rackable, this can create more space in the warehouse by being able to perfectly stack them on top of one another.
Highly durable with long service lifespan
Plastic pallets are more durable than the wooden alternative, and have a longer lifespan due to this. As long as you treat the pallets in the correct manor, a plastic pallet can serve you for more than 250 uses.
Hygienic and easy to clean
Plastic pallets are hygienic and are easier to clean than wooden pallets and are more commonly being used to transport food and pharmaceutical products. You can easily clean a plastic pallet using water directly on the surface of the pallet.
Safe to handle
With a plastic pallet, it is a clean structure with no added use of nails or after a couple of uses, there will be no loose wood chippings. All of this makes the plastic pallet safer to handle than a wooden pallet.
Dimensionally stable
Plastic pallets are popular for their stability which then improves the performance for all product handling systems. Plastic pallets when subjected to their recommended load capacity, the following will remain unaffected:
- Width
- Length
- Height
- Block width
- Entry width
Resistant to most weather conditions
Plastic pallets are resistant to most weather conditions that may interfere with a wooden pallets performance.
Popular for their attractive look and design
Plastic pallets come in a wide range of options, from colours, sizes and mold shapes, all of which can be made identical to another one.
Easy to access and handle with a forklift
You can easily load and offload a plastic pallet from a forklift which increases the speed of the supply chain in industries.