Recycling Euro 48 x 32 plastic pallets: who retires them and how a load is sorted

What a Euro 48 x 32 in pallet is

The 1200 x 800 mm Euro pallet, often required for shipments into Europe. Cabka says there is no single export size. It is the second most popular plastic pallet size worldwide, and many lightweight versions exist for one-way export. Nelson lists one, STK 783, with dynamic 3,500 lb and static 15,000 lb.

Who retires it

Exporters who change destination markets and importers who stopped taking Euro pallets. Stock may be light one-way pallets or heavier reusables.

How the sort goes

Lightweight export pallets are usually nestable and often made with recycled resin. Reusables are heavier. Weight per pallet tells you which you have.

What a Euro 48 x 32 in load needs to describe

Say whether the pallets are one-way export or reusable. Then the count, the resin, the colour, any marks and the ZIP.

Size matters for the trailer. Deck area here is 10.3 sq ft, and 40 x 40 is next closest at 11.1 sq ft, so check you have not got the two mixed together.

Reading the measurements

The deck is 47.2 inches by 31.5 inches, which is 1199 by 800 millimetres, 1,486.8 square inches or 0.959 square metres. The diagonal is 56.7 inches. In shape it is a long rectangle, with a long side 1.50 times the short one.

If a pallet in the pile measures within an inch of 47.2 by 31.5 but not exactly, it may be a metric cousin. The table of every footprint shows which ones are close.

Edges and corners of the 47.2 x 31.5 deck

The deck edge runs 157.4 inches all the way round, which is 13.1 feet, and every foot of it is a place where a fork strikes, a rack beam bears or a strap bites. Four sound corners on a 1,486.8 square inch deck mean the pallet may be reusable; four broken ones usually mean the grinder.

Describing a 47.2 x 31.5 lot

Tell us how many 47.2 x 31.5 pallets there are, what colour they are and whether the decks are whole. Loose or banded matters to the driver. One picture of an underside, showing any steel and the maker mark, answers questions the reply would otherwise have to ask.

Where 48 x 32 Euro piles turn up

Exporters who change destination markets, and importers who stopped taking Euro pallets. The size is often required for shipments into Europe, and many of the pallets are light one-way versions.

One-way or reusable

This is the question that matters most with a Euro pile. A light export pallet is feedstock almost as soon as it arrives. A heavier reusable one may still be a pallet, with a rating of its own.