Guide: ISPM 15 and plastic pallets
ISPM 15 regulates wood packaging material in international trade. A plastic pallet is not wood, so it needs no heat-treatment or fumigation mark.
What ISPM 15 is
ISPM 15 is the International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures number 15. It sets treatment and marking rules for wood packaging material, such as wood pallets, crates and dunnage, that moves between countries. The aim is to stop insects and other pests that live in raw wood travelling with freight.
USDA APHIS publishes the United States rules for wood packaging material. Wood that is not treated and marked can be held, treated or refused at the border, and the cost of that falls on the shipper.
Why plastic stands outside it
The rule is about wood. A plastic pallet is moulded from resin, usually HDPE or polypropylene, and carries no plant pests. So a plastic pallet needs no ISPM 15 stamp, and a container of plastic pallets does not face the wood packaging inspection on that account.
- Wood pallet: treat (heat or fumigate), mark, document.
- Plastic pallet: nothing to treat or mark under this rule.
- Mixed load: any wood in the load, such as a wooden crate or a spacer, still needs the mark.
What the rule does not remove
- Customs paperwork for the cargo itself.
- The importing country's own packaging rules, which can differ.
- Any food, pharma or chemical documents the cargo needs.
Plastic is outside ISPM 15. That is a fact about the standard's scope, not a promise that a shipment clears without questions.
Trailers for your volume
Suppose 3,350 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 7 of a rackable (540 each). The table runs the same sum for 6 volumes, from 3,350 to 17,600.
| Pallets to return | Rehrig Pacific Heavy-duty nestable (1,200 per trailer) | Rehrig Pacific Standard-duty nestable (1,260 per trailer) | Nelson Company Nestable, stackable, rackable (1,800 per trailer) | PHS Plastic EXP 116 nestable (1,260 per trailer) | PHS Plastic EXP 100 nestable (2,340 per trailer) | Rackable (540 per trailer) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,350 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| 6,200 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 12 |
| 9,050 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 17 |
| 11,900 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 23 |
| 14,750 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 7 | 28 |
| 17,600 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 8 | 33 |
How tall the empties stand
Stack height is the other half of the return leg. For the Rehrig Pacific heavy-duty nestable, a stack of 9 stands 26.90 in and a stack of 21 stands 57.50 in, against 136.5 in un-nested.
| Pallets in the stack | Nested height, in | Un-nested height, in | Saved, in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 26.90 | 58.5 | 31.60 |
| 11 | 32.00 | 71.5 | 39.50 |
| 13 | 37.10 | 84.5 | 47.40 |
| 15 | 42.20 | 97.5 | 55.30 |
| 17 | 47.30 | 110.5 | 63.20 |
| 19 | 52.40 | 123.5 | 71.10 |
| 21 | 57.50 | 136.5 | 79.00 |
Words on this page
- UL
- Underwriters Laboratories, a safety testing body that publishes fire test standards, including one for storage pallets.
- Dunnage
- Loose material used to support or secure cargo inside a trailer or container.
- Footprint
- The length and width of a pallet deck. It is chosen to fit the container, the drum, the bag or the receiving rack.
- Stretch wrap
- Elastic film wound around a loaded pallet to hold the load together.
- ISPM 15
- An international standard on treating and marking wood packaging material. Plastic is outside it.
- Recycled content
- The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.
- Racking load
- The weight a pallet holds when it rests on two rack beams with an open gap between them. It is usually the lowest rating and only exists for pallets built for racks.
- GMA pallet
- The 48 by 40 inch North American standard, named for the Grocery Manufacturers Association that popularised it.
Questions people ask
Do plastic pallets need a stamp for export?
Not under ISPM 15. Ask the importer's broker whether the destination needs anything else.
Tell us the footprint and how many stacks you move.
We work out the empty trailer, then take the request for a load.