Bulletin 054 · about

About Plastic Pallet Recyclers

Last reviewed Nov 12, 20268 stages
The short answer

Plastic Pallet Recyclers is a national company that finds the next job for plastic pallets that are finished with their first one. We sort loads, check who owns them, and route them to be ground into regrind and made into pallets again.

We talk like a yard foreman who knows the plastics.

Got a load like this?

Five questions and a photo. We say what we think happens next once the pallets have been seen.

RetiredGroundSortedRemoulded
A pallet is shredded and ground to flake, sorted by resin and colour, and moulded into a pallet again.

What we do

We take loads described by companies with a pile: cracked pallets, retired footprints, surplus lots, mixed colours, strays. We sort by resin, colour and condition. We check for marks. We say what we think happens next.

What we believe

A cracked pallet is not waste. It is HDPE or PP with a next job. We say plainly when a load cannot go anywhere, and we never promise before the pallets have been seen.

What we do not do

We do not give a street address, because we are not a public yard. We do not state prices, minimums or turnaround times, because there is no offer sheet. We do not claim certifications, a fleet or a customer list.

How we work

Practical, like a yard foreman. Careful about ownership. Curious about material. The six sentences on the home page are our rules of thumb.

What a sorted load looks like

A sorted load has a resin, a colour, a condition and an owner, all named. Pallets that are HDPE go one way, PP another, cracked from sound, marked from unmarked. Until the load is described that way it cannot be placed, however big it is.

Who we work with

Processors that shred and grind, moulders that turn regrind into new parts, and pallet makers with take-back programmes. We name the kinds of company, not particular ones, because we cannot show an agreement we have not published.

How we use public data

The area pages quote the Bureau of Labor Statistics for jobs, the Census Bureau for ZIPs and USDA for cold storage. Every figure carries its date. Where a source is silent, the page says so and does not fill the gap.

What you will not find here

A price list. A promise of acceptance. A claim about volumes moved. Photographs passed off as our own yard. If a sentence would need a source we do not have, it is not on the site.

What we say and what we do not

We sayWe do not say
A load is sorted by resin, colour, conditionEvery load is accepted
Marked pallets are checked firstMarked pallets are fine to take
Regrind goes to a mouldRegrind is food safe
We describe sourcesWe quote figures we cannot source

What the sources say

  • en.wikipedia.orgAbout 500 million pallets are made each year as of 2020, with about 2 billion in use in the US.
  • en.wikipedia.orgPlastic pallets are made by injection molding, structural foam molding, thermoforming, compression molding, rotational molding and profile extrusion.
  • palletenterprise.comCHEP 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).
  • phsinc.comPHS lists 48 x 40 stackable plastic pallets with dynamic ratings of 2,500 to 5,000 lb and static ratings of 3,000 to 30,000 lb.
  • en.wikipedia.orgNFPA requires wood and plastic pallets to be stored outdoors or in a detached structure unless sprinklers protect them.
  • iccsafe.orgA 2010 insurer figure cited by ICC puts fire spread to a pallet above at about 18 minutes for plastic versus nearly 50 for wood.
  • aphis.usda.govUSDA APHIS lists plastic pallets among products not subject to APHIS regulation, as an alternative to wood packaging material.
  • nelsoncompany.com48 x 48 plastic pallets hold four 55-gallon drums without overhang; 48 x 45 matches North American auto parts bulk containers.
  • en.wikipedia.orgSteel, aluminum, plastic and engineered-wood pallets are exempt from ISPM 15; wood must reach a core temperature of 56 C for at least 30 minutes for heat treatment.
  • phsinc.comPHS Plastic lists 19 nestable 48 x 40 and other-footprint models with dynamic ratings from 1,102 to 3,500 lb and static ratings from 2,204 to 15,000 lb, so 'nestable' spans light export pallets to heavy-duty stackers.
  • iccsafe.orgAn ICC article says unlisted plastic pallets may require raising the commodity hazard class by two classes, and gives an example needing about 55 percent more sprinkler water.
  • iccsafe.orgThe International Fire Code permits pallets listed and labeled under FM 4996 or UL 2335 to be treated as wood pallets for sprinkler design.
  • phsinc.comPHS lists its EXP 100 nestable (48 x 40 x 5.2 in) at 78 pallets per stack and 2,340 per truckload, and its EXP 116 (48 x 40 x 5.75 in, 15,000 lb static) at 40 per stack and 1,260 per truckload: a higher static rating comes with fewer pallets per stack.
  • iccsafe.orgUL 2335 has an idle pallet test and a commodity storage test.

Terms on this page

Regrind
Plastic ground from used or scrap parts into flakes for moulding again.
Footprint
The length and width of a pallet’s deck, for example 48 x 40 inches.
Ownership check
Our first step with any pallet that carries a name, logo, tag or colour that suggests another owner.
HDPE
High-density polyethylene, resin code 2. The most common resin in plastic pallets; tough and moisture resistant.
PP
Polypropylene. More rigid than HDPE and better with heat and harsh chemicals; used where rack stiffness matters.
Contamination
Anything in a load that is not the target resin: labels, metal, dirt, wood, food residue or another plastic.
Shredder
A slow, heavy machine that tears whole pallets into large pieces before they reach the granulator.
Moulder
A manufacturer that melts regrind or pellets and forms them into parts, such as pallets.
Nestable
Empty pallets stack inside one another, cutting empty storage space by up to 75 percent.
Granulator
A machine with rotating knives that cuts plastic down to a set size, then pushes it through a screen.
Food contact
A material that touches food directly. Recycled content in food-contact use is held to rules a pallet deck usually is not.

Questions people ask

Who is behind the company?

The company speaks as we. We list no staff names or photos.

Where are you based?

We collect nationally. We give no street address.

Are you a recycler or a broker?

We sort and route loads. Grinding and moulding are done by processors and makers.

Why does the site name so many sources?

Because the claims about law, standards and numbers are not ours. A reader can check each one.

Do you recycle pallets other than plastic?

No. Wood and corrugated pallets are a different trade with different rules.

Can I trust the area pages?

The numbers on them are public figures with their dates shown. What we add is how a load is described and routed.

Cracked, retired or mixed?

Send a load