Index · recycling

Plastic pallet recycling: every kind of load

Last reviewed Nov 12, 20265 stages

The short answer

Plastic pallet recycling here means one thing: a cracked, crushed, burnt or retired pallet is sorted by resin and colour, ground into regrind, and the regrind goes back to a mould.

Pick the page that matches what is in your yard. Each one says what we need to see before a load gets a next step.

Four bins. A load goes to the one that fits first and moves if the pallets say otherwise.

HDPE and PPthe two resins nearly every plastic pallet is made from

3 binsregrind, reuse and repair, ownership check first

0promises made before the pallets have been seen

Start with what is in the pile

Describe the load by what is in it. How many pallets, what size, broken or sound, black or mixed colour, and whether any carry another company’s name. That is the whole intake, and it decides which page below fits.

A yard of cracked decks is a different job from a stack of sound pallets left over after a packaging change. Both are welcome. They just take different routes.

Sort by resin, colour and condition

Plastic pallets are HDPE or PP. HDPE is resin code 2 and the most common. PP is stiffer and turns up in rackable and rigid designs. They grind and mould differently, so they are never mixed in one pile.

Colour matters next. An all-black load makes one colour of regrind. A mixed-colour pile makes a mixed one. Condition decides whether a pallet is feedstock or still a pallet.

Check who owns every pallet

Pooling companies rent pallets out and collect them again. A pallet with a pool name or an RFID tag on it may belong to the pool, not the holder. We check before anything moves, and the pool-marked guide explains why.

Grind, then mould again

Sorted, clean feedstock is shredded or granulated into regrind. Regrind is melted and formed again, usually by injection moulding, into a pallet or another part. Greystone Logistics already buys damaged plastic pallets as feedstock, and Cabka’s Eco CP3 pallet is made from recycled polyethylene, so the loop is real.

Choosing the page that matches your pile

Broken pallets, scrap lots, old stock, disposal and pickup are the same material seen from different questions. Pick the page that matches what you are trying to decide: whether it can be recycled, how to describe it, or how to get it moved.

Which load, which page

Each row links from the list below.
Your pile	Start here	What we look at
Cracked, crushed or burnt	Broken pallets	Resin, colour, how much is burnt
Mixed and scrap	Scrap pallets	Sorting bins and contamination
Old but whole	Old pallets	Whether repair beats grinding
A pile to clear	Disposal	The landfill alternatives
A trailer to move	Pickup	What the load needs before it goes
A whole retired stock	All retired stock	Size, style and whether it is sound

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.
nelsoncompany.comHDPE is the most common resin in plastic pallets; PP is more rigid and the page recommends it for unsupported racking.
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.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.
en.wikipedia.orgAbout 500 million pallets are made each year as of 2020, with about 2 billion in use in the US.
nelsoncompany.com48 x 48 plastic pallets hold four 55-gallon drums without overhang; 48 x 45 matches North American auto parts bulk containers.
rehrigpacific.comRehrig Pacific's heavy-duty nestable can be made with post-consumer or post-industrial recycled material, up to 30 percent in black and up to 10 percent in colour, and is RFID compatible.
resource-recycling.comGreystone Logistics processed about 60 million pounds of recycled plastic in the year ended May 31, 2024, using damaged plastic pallets from a buy-back program among its feedstock.
nelsoncompany.comThat Nelson model is under 5 in tall, which the page says suits air freight, and works with automation and most roller conveyors.
en.wikipedia.orgThe 48 x 40 in GMA pallet makes up about 30 percent of new US wood pallets.
en.wikipedia.orgNFPA requires wood and plastic pallets to be stored outdoors or in a detached structure unless sprinklers protect them.
nelsoncompany.comPallet capacities are issued by the manufacturer from calculation and lab or field tests, and assume an evenly distributed load.
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.
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.

Terms on this page

Regrind: Plastic ground from used or scrap parts into flakes for moulding again.
Deck: The flat surface that carries the load. A pallet may have a top deck, a bottom deck or both.
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.
Resin code: The number inside the triangle on a plastic part. HDPE is 2, PP is 5.
Resin identification code: Number on a plastic part for the resin, which does not itself say whether it is recyclable.
Rackable: Rated to sit on rack beams, with a stated racking load.
Pooled pallet: A pallet owned by a rental pool and lent to users, who are expected to return it, not scrap it.
Pooling: Renting pallets from a company that owns, tracks and collects them instead of buying.
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.
Shredder: A slow, heavy machine that tears whole pallets into large pieces before they reach the granulator.
Granulator: A machine with rotating knives that cuts plastic down to a set size, then pushes it through a screen.
Injection moulding: Pallet made by forcing molten resin into a mould at high pressure.

Questions people ask

Can any plastic pallet be recycled?

Most can, because most are HDPE or PP. Condition, contamination and ownership decide the route. A pallet with a pool owner’s mark may not be yours to send at all.

Do you take wood pallets?

No. This site is about plastic pallets only.

Will you accept my load?

We cannot say before the pallets have been seen. Send the count, the resin if you know it, and photos of the stack, and we say what we think happens next.

What is the first thing I should do with a pile?

Count it, find out whose it is, and photograph it. Those three decide every other step.

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

Sources, reviewed Nov 12, 2026: Racklify encyclopedia, recycled plastic pallets; Resource Recycling, Greystone Logistics; Material District, Eco CP3 pallet; Pallet Enterprise, CHEP and California recyclers.