Plastic vs Wood Pallets: What’s Best for Your Application?

Plastic Pallet Advantages

There are a number of advantages in using plastic vs wood pallets, with the biggest one being that plastic pallets are generally cleaner. That’s why it’s a popular choice for industries with strict hygiene requirements, such as the fresh/frozen food and pharmaceutical industries. When you use plastic pallets, you don’t generally have to worry about mold or bugs. Plastic pallets are easy to clean, wash, and sterilize because they aren’t porous. Closed-loop warehouse environments often use plastic because their pallets are returned to them, and plastic also works well on pallet wrapping machines.

Plastic pallets are also said to be more durable and weather resistant, although that’s only true up to a point – which we’ll discuss when we get to the disadvantages. Another pro of using plastic is that it is re-usable, but again only under specific circumstances. Plastic pallets contain no fasteners or nails that might come out of the pallet during transport, they don’t splinter, they don’t give off any moisture, and plastic pallets burn at higher temperatures than wood, especially if they’re UL-listed. Lastly, plastic pallets are much lighter than their wooden counterpart, and often makes a nicer store display.