Two resins dominate plastic pallets: HDPE and PP. They look identical in a product photo, cost within a similar band, and fail in completely different ways. Buyers who pick the wrong one discover it a year later — as cracked pallets at the freezer dock, or as sagging decks in a warm racking aisle. This guide compares the two materials on the properties that actually decide field performance, and maps each to the applications it suits. For application-specific context, see our pallets for racking systems guide and pallet pooling vs buying cost model.
The two resins in one paragraph each
HDPE (high-density polyethylene) is the workhorse of blow and injection moulding: excellent impact toughness, good chemical resistance, and stable performance in cold. Its weaknesses are lower stiffness and creep — under a sustained static load, an HDPE pallet slowly deforms.
PP (polypropylene) is stiffer, handles heat better, and resists creep, which is why it holds racking loads without sagging. Its weakness is cold: below freezing, standard PP grades turn brittle and crack on impact.
Property-by-property comparison
| Property | HDPE | PP | What it means for pallets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impact toughness | Excellent | Good, poor when cold | HDPE survives dock drops; PP can shatter in freezers |
| Stiffness | Moderate | High | PP decks deflect less under point loads |
| Creep under load | Higher | Lower | Long racking dwell favours PP or reinforced HDPE |
| Low-temperature use | Good to −30°C | Brittle below 0°C | Cold chain: HDPE only |
| Heat resistance | ~90°C continuous | ~100–110°C | Both fine for wash tunnels; PP better near heat sources |
| Chemical resistance | Excellent (acids, alkalis) | Good, weak vs oxidising acids | Aggressive chemical loops favour HDPE |
| UV without additive | Poor | Poor | Outdoor yard duty needs UV stabiliser in either resin |
Application mapping
Choose HDPE when the enemy is impact and cold
- Freezer and cold chain — minus 25°C distribution, seafood and frozen food plants.
- High-turnover shipping loops — pallets that get dropped, thrown and forked all day.
- Chemical and washdown environments — good acid and alkali tolerance plus impact survival.
- Export one-way use — tough enough to survive the journey, economical enough to give away.
Choose PP when the enemy is time and heat
- Rack storage with long dwell — beams loaded for weeks; PP resists the slow sag.
- Warm warehouses — mezzanines and top-floor storage where summer temperatures climb.
- Static warehouse duty — pallets that live indoors, stacked and racked rather than dropped.
- Automated systems — dimensional stability matters more than impact toughness when a shuttle picks the pallet 50,000 times.
The third answer: reinforced hybrids
Many serious pallets are neither pure choice. Steel-reinforced HDPE pallets carry rack loads that plain HDPE cannot, and PP copolymers with impact modifiers extend useful cold performance toward −10°C. If your application sits between the columns of the table above, a reinforced or copolymer design usually beats both pure options. For electronics manufacturing, also see our ESD plastic pallets guide.
Weight, price and the recycling question
Resin choice interacts with pallet economics in three ways:
- Price per kilogram — HDPE and PP trade within a similar band, but virgin food-grade resin costs roughly double mixed recyclate. Ultra-cheap pallets are usually ultra-filled recyclate.
- Design weight — PP’s stiffness lets moulders reach the same load rating with less material, which is why PP pallets are often lighter for equal rack ratings.
- Recyclability — both resins are recyclable, but a pallet moulded in one single resin is far easier to recycle than multi-material assemblies. If end-of-life value matters to your loop, specify single-resin construction.
Specification checklist
- Define the worst-case temperature, not the average. Freezer duty disqualifies standard PP.
- Separate dynamic load (forklift, moving) from static racking load and state dwell time.
- Ask for creep data or steel reinforcement for any racking dwell beyond a week.
- Confirm virgin resin with food-contact certification where the application needs it.
- Add UV stabiliser for any outdoor storage yard, in either resin.
- For export shipping, check ISPM-15 exemption applies (plastic is exempt by nature) and confirm destination handling practice.
Pallets from a moulding factory, not a trader
LSY Plastic injection-moulds plastic pallets in Foshan on Japanese-imported machines from 180T to 2500T with an in-house mould workshop — the same facility that supplies OEM parts to BYD, OPPO, vivo and Delice. Because we run the moulds, resin selection, reinforcement and dimensional tolerances are specified with the application, not bought blind from a catalogue. A 20,000 m² warehouse supports repeat export orders, and we ship pallet configurations matched to racking, freezer and export duty worldwide.
Get a pallet resin recommendation
Tell us your temperature range, racking dwell time, dynamic load and washdown requirements. We will recommend HDPE, PP or a reinforced design with the load tests to back it.
WhatsApp: +86 19311059570
Email: fstyx01@lsyplastic.com
Related reading: plastic pallets for racking systems, pallets per container loading guide, and pallet pooling vs buying cost model.