Bulletin 024 · processing

Plastic shredding: the first cut for a pallet load

Last reviewed Nov 12, 20267 stages

The short answer

Plastic shredding is the first cut for a pallet. A shredder tears a deck, runners and blocks into pieces small enough for a granulator.

It is a rough step, so the load has to be clear of metal and sorted by resin before it goes in.

Got a load like this?

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

Send a load Find your area

A mesh screen sets the flake size. What passes goes on; the oversize goes back to the grinder.

Why shred first

A pallet is big and solid. Feeding it to a granulator whole is not an option. A shredder with slow, heavy cutters reduces it to chunks. Racklify lists shredding or granulating as one step in the chain.

What the shredder fears

Metal. Fasteners, RFID cages, wire strapping, a forgotten bolt. Anything harder than the cutters. This is why pallets are checked before they are fed.

What comes out

Chunks, not flake. Chunk size depends on the shredder and the screen under it. The granulator turns chunks into flake.

Pre-sorting makes it cheaper to run

A load sorted by resin and colour goes through once. A mixed one is re-sorted after shredding, which is harder. Sort before the cut, not after.

Slow and heavy

A shredder turns slowly with high torque, tearing material between rotating hooks. That is the opposite of a granulator, which spins fast with sharp knives. Pallets suit the first because they are thick and shaped like frames.

What shredders dislike

Metal inserts, steel banding, stones, and loose wood. A shredder can be damaged by them, which is why the load description lists them. A steel-reinforced pallet is not scrap until the steel is out.

Size of the pieces

A shredder leaves pieces several centimetres across. They are not flake. They go to the granulator, whose screen sets the final size.

Shredding versus grinding

Step	Cutters	Output
Shredding	Slow, heavy	Chunks
Grinding	Fast, knives and screen	Flake sized by the screen holes

What the sources say

nelsoncompany.comNelson Company defines dynamic capacity as the load a pallet carries in motion, always below static; static as the load at rest and the bottom pallet's limit in a stack; racking as the load across an open rack span, often the lowest and given only for pallets designed for it.
en.wikipedia.orgMetal pallets are under 1 percent of the pallet market.
palletenterprise.comCalifornia AB 1760 (2022) lets recyclers take possession of stray proprietary pallets if the owner cannot be identified or fails to retrieve them in time, with a 35-day period before they can be declared abandoned.
en.wikipedia.orgThe 48 x 40 in GMA pallet makes up about 30 percent of new US wood pallets.
en.wikipedia.orgPlastic pallets weigh about 3 to 15 lb when light and up to 300 lb when heavy; a typical GMA wood pallet weighs about 37 lb.
blog.containerexchanger.comThe 800 x 1200 mm Euro footprint is the second most popular plastic pallet size worldwide.
en.wikipedia.orgPlastic pallets can deform (creep) under heavy long-term loads and are hard to repair.
blog.containerexchanger.comNestable pallets can cut empty-pallet storage space by up to 75 percent.
nelsoncompany.comAdvanced composite material pallets are 100 percent recycled polyolefins, cheaper with a shorter life, and suit export where the pallet is not returned.
nelsoncompany.comHDPE is the most common resin in plastic pallets; PP is more rigid and the page recommends it for unsupported racking.
cabka.comCabka says plastic export pallets are exempt from ISPM-15 treatment, that there is no single export size, and that its nestable export designs include extra-lightweight and air-freight versions.
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.
nelsoncompany.comPallet capacities are issued by the manufacturer from calculation and lab or field tests, and assume an evenly distributed load.
eponline.comIn December 2011 a Los Angeles County Sheriff task force recovered over $250,000 of illegally obtained plastic pallets, including iGPS pallets, from a plastic recycler.

Terms on this page

Shredder: A slow, heavy machine that tears whole pallets into large pieces before they reach the granulator.
Deck: The flat surface that carries the load. A pallet may have a top deck, a bottom deck or both.
Runners: Bottom rails that touch the floor or rack and carry the load.
Granulator: A machine with rotating knives that cuts plastic down to a set size, then pushes it through a screen.
RFID tag: A small radio tag moulded or fixed into a pallet so that its owner can track it.
RFID: Radio tag moulded or fixed into a pallet so it can be tracked.
Flake: The small, irregular pieces a granulator makes. Flake is regrind before it is sold or melted.
Screen: The perforated plate under a granulator’s knives. The size of its holes sets the size of the flake.
Ownership check: Our first step with any pallet that carries a name, logo, tag or colour that suggests another owner.

Questions people ask

Can any plastic pallet be shredded?

Most can. Burnt sections and metal are cut out first.

Do you offer shredding as a service?

We route loads to processors that do. Ask in the form.

How small is shredded plastic?

Chunks. The flake size comes at the grinder.

Can a shredder take wet pallets?

It can, but wet plastic is harder to handle downstream. Say if the pallets have been outside.

Does shredding change the plastic?

No chemistry changes. It cuts the pallet into pieces.

Sources, reviewed Nov 12, 2026: Racklify encyclopedia, recycled plastic pallets; The Cary Company, what is regrind.