Benefits of Using Plastic Pallets

The benefits of using plastic pallets for your material handling needs include the following:

• Clean and easy to handle
• Protect your products and those who handle them
• Impervious to acids, fats, solvents and odors
• Easy handling by forklift and pallet jacks
• Do not allow water absorption or the growth of bacteria
• Inert to infestation, mold and mildew
• Allow for heat sterilization for shipment of food or pharmaceutical products
• Environmentally friendly product of 100% recycled plastics
• Completely recyclable
• Consistently dimensionally accurate
  

Plastic pallets are ISPM 15 exempt, making plastic a popular choice over heat treated wood pallets. Heat treated pallets are wood pallets that are heat treated to achieve minimum wood core temperature of 56 degrees Celsius for a minimum of 30 minutes. Heat treatment of wood pallets is now required to prevent the transportation of plant pests from one country to another.

Plant pests including the emerald ash borer can pose a significant risk to agriculture as well as natural, cultivated and urban forest reserves. The International standard that requires the heat treatment of wood pallets is ISPM-15. ISPM-15 is currently being enforced in almost every major importing country in the world. As mentioned earlier, plastic pallets are exempt from these regulations.

After treatment, ISPM-15 requires that the heat treated pallets are marked in a visible location, preferably on at least two opposite sides of the pallet, with a legible and permanent mark approved by the International Plant Protection Convention. This mark is to certify that the wood pallets have been subjected to the approved heat treatment. The increased cost and difficulty of heat treatment of wood pallets is causing many shippers to look at alternatives to wood pallets, most commonly plastic.

Contact The Nelson Company today or view our plastic pallet catalog featuring our complete line of plastic pallets..