Benefits of Purchasing Plastic Pallets
01 Feb 2018
Traditionally pallets were always constructed with wood, but in today’s world they can be made from plastic or metal too. Whilst each type of material has its benefits, plastic is often the clear winner. Read on as we explore the 12 benefits of plastic pallets.
12 Reasons to Go Plastic
1. Pallets made from plastic are extremely durable, outliving wooden pallets by a considerable amount of time. This makes them much more cost-effective, with a low cost per trip over the lifetime of one pallet.
2. Unlike metal options, plastic pallets don’t have protruding slivers or fasteners which can damage flooring or your produce or even cause injury to staff and handlers.
3. Plastic options are much easier to stack and are better for edge racking.
4. Pallets made from plastic are frequently lighter than their wooden or metal counterparts. Better manual handling practices, such as choosing lighter transit options, will improve the health and safety of your workplace.
5. Plastic ones are available in a much wider range of colours. Some firms choose colours that match their branding or to improve the appearance of their storage facility. Others buy a series of different colours to make organizing products easier.
6. Sizing is more consistent than in wooden pallets, making for more efficient use of storage space.
7. Plastic is non-absorbent, which means that not only are these pallets easy to wash, making them more hygienic, but also that water ingress won’t affect the integrity of the pallets over time.
8. It’s possible to buy inexpensive but lightweight pallets which are ISPM exempt when it comes to international shipping. This can make for faster distribution with fewer hold-ups along the way.
9. The nesting design of pallets made from plastic saves huge amounts of space when in storage, in transit and most especially when being returned. Less space used in transit or returns can save companies a lot of money.
10. A lack of wood chips makes plastic options preferable to wooden pallets, which can damage tyres, cause a mess and even injure staff.
11. Plastic can be easily recycled, usually at a local disposal centre. Also, many pallet retailers offer a buyback option – even for pallets not originally purchased from them.
12. Some companies use RFID tags for tracking shipments. These can actually be embedded into some plastic options.
Make Plastic Your Next Purchase
As you can see, the benefits of using plastic pallets are multiple and even, at times, surprising. They are more durable, cleaner, hygienic and cost-effective as well as space savers which can be easily returned when they are no longer used. Next time you are considering a pallet purchase, consider using this lightweight material.