Bulletin 019 · regrind

Plastic scrap buyers and sellers: the pallet load

Last reviewed Nov 12, 20267 stages

The short answer

Plastic scrap buyers take sorted loads of plastic and grind or pelletise them. A plastic pallet load is one of the cleaner streams because it is a single polymer, usually HDPE or PP.

If you have a pallet pile and are looking for a buyer, start by describing the load, not the price you want.

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.

What buyers look for

One resin per load. Few contaminants. Consistent colour. A form they can handle, bales or loose pieces. The Association of Plastic Recyclers publishes Model Bale Specifications as industry guidelines, though its page gives no numeric limits.

Why pallets are an easy stream

A pallet is made of one polymer, not a laminate. HDPE and PP are the two the market knows. A damaged pallet gives a lot of clean material in one stack. That is the pitch.

What gets in the way

Another company’s mark. Mixed colours. Food or chemical residue. Wood nailed in. Each is a reason a buyer says no, or a reason a load needs a second look.

What we do

We sort and route loads. We say what we think happens to a pallet load. We do not quote a scrap price.

What a buyer will ask

Where did it come from, what is in it, how clean is it, how much is there and where is it? A load with answers is worth more attention than a load without.

How buyers grade

By resin, colour, form and cleanliness. A bale or bag of a single resin in a single colour is a higher grade than a mixed lot.

Why pallets suit buyers

Pallets are big, moulded in one resin and made to last. Their scrap is more uniform than most post-consumer plastic.

Seller and buyer, what each side needs

Seller shows	Buyer checks	Gap if missing
Count and size	Trailer fit	Wrong truck
Resin	Grind settings	Mixed regrind
Colour	Where it can be placed	Speckled output
Marks	Whose it is	Dispute

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.orgPlastic pallets can deform (creep) under heavy long-term loads and are hard to repair.
en.wikipedia.orgHDPE has resin identification code 2, a density of 930 to 970 kg/m3, melts at 131.8 C and is hard to glue, so joints are usually welded.
nelsoncompany.comAdvanced composite material pallets are 100 percent recycled polyolefins, cheaper with a shorter life, and suit export where the pallet is not returned.
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.
nelsoncompany.comHDPE is the most common resin in plastic pallets; PP is more rigid and the page recommends it for unsupported racking.
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.
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.
nelsoncompany.comFor products touching the pallet directly, stricter federal requirements may call for non-blended virgin HDPE; recycled pallets often meet general FDA needs.
nelsoncompany.comA used Nelson 48 x 40 x 6.3 in HDPE one-piece pallet weighs 49 lb with 30,000 lb static, 5,000 lb dynamic and 2,200 lb racking ratings.
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.orgPlastic pallets are often described as lasting 100 trips or more, and can cost roughly 10 times as much as hardwood pallets.
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.

Terms on this page

Pellet: A small bead made by melting regrind and cutting it. Pellets feed into machines more evenly than flake.
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.
Bale: A compressed block of scrap, tied for shipping. Buyers grade bales by resin, colour and cleanliness.
Regrind: Plastic ground from used or scrap parts into flakes for moulding again.
Post-consumer: Material recovered after a product has been used, then sorted and reprocessed.
Moulder: A manufacturer that melts regrind or pellets and forms them into parts, such as pallets.
Trailer fill: How much of a trailer a load takes: a quarter, half or full. It sizes the freight job.
Ownership check: Our first step with any pallet that carries a name, logo, tag or colour that suggests another owner.

Questions people ask

Who buys plastic scrap?

Reclaimers, regrind processors and moulders. The Association of Plastic Recyclers has 80+ reclaimers and more than 300 member companies.

Can I find buyers near me?

Use the area pages. We route by ZIP.

Will you buy my pallets?

We cannot say before seeing them. Describe the load in the form.

Do you buy scrap?

We route loads. Whether a buyer pays or charges depends on the load and is not stated here.

Do scrap buyers want HDPE or PP?

Both are bought. Each buyer has a preference, which is why we ask the resin.

Sources, reviewed Nov 12, 2026: Association of Plastic Recyclers; Resource Recycling, Greystone Logistics.