Look it up and you’re more likely to end up with more confusion with the hundreds of heated debates out there. But now that you’re torn between a wood pallet and the plastic-made one, how do you decide on which is the best? It depends more on you, but I will be more expounding and concise in this article by highlighting the advantages and the disadvantages of both sides.
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To the main thing…wood pallets first!
Wood Pallets; Advantages And Disadvantages
Advantages Of Wood Pallets
- Easy to repair; generally speaking, pallets are susceptible to serious damages. Consider the continuous scratches from forklifts and the amount of weight they bear over a long period of time. So, budgeting a repair cost is inescapable. But with the wood-made ones, you will not only minimize the cost but also make the repair easier.
- Strength and durability; regardless of your palletization purpose, cashing in on the maximum weight support possible is a great advantage and that’s where wooden pallets become exceptional. Compared to other materials, wood has more tensile strength, it is tougher, and has an extensive lifetime.
- Super-constructible; wood is more constructible and can be creatively engineered into your design of choice, even the premade wooden pallets can be reconfigured.
- Eco-friendly and renewable; when a wooden pallet ultimately peter-out, it doesn’t add to the ever-rising plastic crisis to become another threat to our precious earth. Otherwise, your dead wooden pallet can be renewed and rebuilt or can be converted into other useful products.
Disadvantages Of Wood Pallets
- Susceptible to degradation; among every other material, wood is susceptible to damage from the invasion of wood termites and other wood-feeding pests.
- Self-load; woods are heavier compared to plastic, their self-loads can increase your transportation cost. Also, more loads translate to difficulty in handling.
- Beauty; woods lack the aesthetics common among other pallets, therefore a wooden pallet is less likely to perform the additional function of a displaying platform in a store.
Plastic Pallets; Advantages And disadvantages
Advantages
- Aesthetics; plastic pallets are not just in shades of black and white but come in various attractive colors and designs. They can be used in malls and stores for displaying heavy products and auto parts since they appeal to your customers.
- Lightness; plastics are light in weight, therefore, they are safer and easier to handle. With plastic pallets, you need fewer workers to do the heavy lifting. Equally, your transportation budget can be cut down, thanks to the lightness of plastic pallets.
- Flexibility; plastics are flexible so you can load more goods in your space, whether in the warehouse or your cargo ship.
- Security; plastic does not attract insects that would otherwise eat up your pallets and your consumable goods.
- Budget-friendly; plastic pallets are not so expensive compared to their metal counterparts.
Disadvantages
- Maintenance; flash news, you can’t repair a broken plastic pallet.
- Weak; not really but they offer less support to weight when compared to metal or wood.
So, which should you go for? Here’s my personal opinion.
4 Reasons To Choose Plastic Over Wooden Pallet
- Safety; plastic pallets are molded in one-piece and are therefore more safety-wise when forklifted or handled in any way compared to the wooden pallet that has multiple components joined together with nails.
- Protected; wooden pallets either get eaten up by termites or they’ll incur the extra pest-control budget. Plastic saves a life.
- Hygienic and cost-effective; buying a plastic pallet is more budget-friendly than going for the wooden ones. Besides, wooden pallets become gross and filthy as they absorb moisture no matter how much you try to prevent that.
- Recyclable; forget about that popular opinion that plastics are not environmental-friendly. When properly disposed of and recycled when damaged, plastic pallets save trees.