Plastic pallets for export and ISPM 15

What the rule is

ISPM 15 is the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures number 15, about regulating wood packaging material in international trade. USDA APHIS explains that wood packaging material shipped abroad has to be treated and marked to stop plant pests travelling with it. The target is pests that live in wood.

Plastic is moulded from resin, not milled from timber, so it carries no wood pests and falls outside the rule. That is a fact about the standard's scope. It is not a promise that the importing country asks for nothing else.

What can still be asked

• A packing list that names the pallet as plastic.
• Resin or recycled-content documents for certain products.
• Food-contact or pharma statements for the cargo, not the pallet.
• Fire or hazard papers for chemical shipments.

Trailers for your volume

Suppose 2,660 empty pallets come back in a month. At the maker figures on file that is 3 trailers of Rehrig Pacific heavy-duty nestables (1,200 each), 2 of PHS Plastic's EXP 100 (2,340 each) or 5 of a rackable (540 each). The table runs the same sum for 6 volumes, from 2,660 to 13,950.

Plastic and the rest of the paperwork

Dropping the ISPM 15 stamp removes one document and one inspection reason. It does not remove the commercial invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading or any cargo-specific certificate. Food, pharmaceutical and chemical shipments carry their own papers, and some importers ask for a statement about the pallet material.

The simplest habit is to name the pallet as plastic on the packing list and to keep the maker's data sheet in the shipping file. If a customs officer asks what the pallet is, the file answers.

Questions to put to the maker

• Does the receiving country ask for a treatment mark on plastic, or only on wood?
• Does the sheet give a rating for a container and for the stack in it?
• Is the pallet meant for one trip, or will it be returned?
• Is the pallet light enough to survive being tipped by hand at the receiving end?
• How much does the empty pallet weigh, since every pound is freight?
• Is a nestable version offered, to cut the empty leg?
• Which receiver handling equipment does the pallet need to match?
• Does the receiver name a pallet size, or leave it to the shipper?

From the dock

• Plan for the pallet to be re-used locally; a good plastic pallet outlives the shipment that carried it.
• A receiver without forklifts will unload by hand; a lighter pallet and an open deck can matter more than rating.
• Container floors are unforgiving: a pallet an inch too wide wastes a whole row.
• Ask the importer for a photo of the dock; it answers questions that a specification does not.
• One-way pallets are priced to be left behind; build them into the cost of goods, not the return.
• Foreign racks follow their own standards; the receiving rack, not yours, sets the footprint.
• Light pallets save freight on every trip; the pallets that come back heavy cost the same again.

Words on this page

Nest ratio

How many empty pallets fit in the height of one: pallet height divided by nest increment.

One-way pallet

A light pallet built to carry cargo to a destination and stay there, often used in export.

ISPM 15

An international standard on treating and marking wood packaging material. Plastic is outside it.

Nest increment

The extra height each additional empty pallet adds to a nested stack, measured in inches. A small increment means a short stack.

UL

Underwriters Laboratories, a safety testing body that publishes fire test standards, including one for storage pallets.

Recycled content

The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.

Bulk bag

A large woven bag, often sold as a Super Sack, that holds a ton or so of powder or granules and sits on a square pallet.

CP9

A chemical industry pallet standard, 1140 by 1140 millimetres, about 45 by 45 inches.