Corrugated paper pallets: how much they carry and when they can replace wood

A paper pallet can take a tonne or more because of the way it is built. The deck is laminated from several layers of high-strength corrugated board. The legs are board rolled, compressed or folded into solid blocks, which carry the load and leave openings for forklift tines. Both are purpose-built parts, each designed separately for its own job, with a construction quite different from ordinary carton board folded into shape. That structure does as much of the work as the board itself, so paper thickness alone is a poor guide to capacity.

Where the pallet goes after it leaves your dock usually settles the choice. On one-way shipments, and export in particular, paper tends to cost less in total, since there are no pallets to recover and no timber to treat. Pallets that stay on site and go round several times a day for years are better made of wood or plastic. Plastic resists moisture best, and its high cost per pallet is the reason it suits closed-loop systems.

Safety on the warehouse floor differs too. Paper pallets have no nails or splinters, the parts of a wooden pallet that can injure staff or tear boxes.

When wood packaging arrives unmarked or wrongly treated, the destination country can hold the goods, order re-treatment or send the shipment back, and the exporter pays for the cost and the delay. The rule behind those checks is ISPM-15, the international standard for pest control in wood packaging. It covers solid wood packaging, including wooden pallets, crates and dunnage, all of which must be heat-treated or fumigated before export and carry an official stamp.

Paperboard has already been processed with heat and adhesive, so the standard does not count it as wood packaging, and corrugated pallets are out of scope from the start. For a shipper, that means no treatment step to fit into the production plan and no stamp to arrange. The gain is largest on air freight, which is charged by weight: the pallet weighs less, and there is no treatment paperwork to prepare.

Where paper pallets fit and where they do not

Paper pallets suit:

• Air and sea freight with the goods inside a container
• One-way distribution where pallets are not recovered
• Destinations with limited storage space
• Customers whose sites require clean packaging or do not allow wood in production areas

They are not yet a good fit for:

• Outdoor use with exposure to rain
• Areas with standing water or constantly high humidity
• Empty pallets returned and reused several times a day over long periods
• Reuse loops with constant moisture and abrasion

When moisture is a factor but the weight saving still matters, our team can combine the pallet with protective pads or adjust the paper specification for better moisture resistance.

For sustainability reports that cover packaging sourcing, the pallets can be supplied with an FSC claim, requested when the order is placed. Auto Boxes holds FSC Chain of Custody certification for corrugated board and corrugated packaging, certificate number 0171784, FSC code SAI-COC-012565.

One-way export is the clear case for paper: the pallet usually pays for itself from the first lot. For pallets reused inside your own operation, the numbers need working out case by case, based on how many cycles each pallet will see and how humid the destination is. Paper pallets, layer pads and other protective transport packaging are shown together on the Transport packaging page.

How much weight can a paper pallet carry?
About 1–2 tonnes per pallet. The figure depends on the design: the number of deck layers, the paper grade and the leg design. The exact capacity is calculated from how the load will be stacked and the actual weight of the product.

Can paper pallets replace wooden pallets?
Yes, for export and one-way shipments, where the benefit is greatest. They are unsuited to outdoor use and to reuse loops where pallets go round many times and face constant moisture and wear.

Do paper pallets need fumigation before export like wooden ones?
Paper pallets need no treatment and no stamp. ISPM-15 covers wood packaging only.

Can a pallet be used after it gets wet?
Board that has been soaked through loses strength, and the pallet should not carry loads again. Use paper pallets where humidity is controlled, or specify a more moisture-resistant paper at the design stage.

Can pallets be made in special sizes?
Yes. Each pallet can be sized to the actual product, which leaves less empty space in the container than a standard pallet that does not match the goods.