How much does a plastic pallet cost?

In briefA new 1200×800 plastic pallet generally costs about €5 to €30 if lightweight, €30 to €60 if medium-duty and €60 to €80 if heavy-duty, excl. VAT; a hygienic pallet sits between €30 and €80. Cost per trip matters more than purchase price: a medium-duty pallet that comes back dozens of times costs less than a lightweight one used once.

The price of a plastic pallet depends mainly on its class: how much it weighs, how much it carries, whether it has reinforcement or a hygienic deck. Below you will find indicative ranges by class, excl. VAT, and a worked example that takes you from price to cost per trip.

Price ranges by class

Prices per piece for a new 1200×800, excl. VAT and excl. transport. The ranges are drawn from Italian B2B catalogues: use them to get your bearings, not as a price list.

Prices below the lightweight range only come with orders of several dozen pieces. A reinforced heavy-duty hygienic pallet generally sits towards €80. If you are asked for more for a new flat pallet, ask what justifies the price.

ROLL does not sell general-purpose plastic pallets and does not make flat pallets. It offers three models, each for one use; price, minimum order and transport are on the product sheets:

• PP69, for storage in pallet racking, with three steel bars ^[1];
• PPH1, hygienic with closed runners, washable; it is made from recycled material, so not for direct food contact ^[2];
• PP08, a flat 4-way deck for floor handling with a pallet truck ^[3].

Weight and load capacities for each class are in lightweight, medium and heavy-duty plastic pallets.

What drives the price

Weight and raw material. A plastic pallet is mostly kilos of polymer: a lightweight one has 4-9 of them, a heavy-duty one 18-25. For the same size, price rises with weight.

Virgin or recycled. Even with the same size and declared load capacity, two pallets in a catalogue can have very different prices depending on colour and material, often with no explanation. Always ask whether the material is virgin or recycled and whether there is a declaration for food contact.

Hygienic finish and reinforcement. A closed, smooth deck, virgin material and steel bars push a pallet towards the top of its range. A medium-duty pallet with steel bars designed for racking can still stay in the medium range ^[1].

Quantity. Many catalogues offer tiered discounts, for example from one or two dozen pieces, and the lowest lightweight prices apply with a minimum order.

Transport. It is almost always extra, and a pallet takes up volume even when empty. Nestable pallets nest and travel better empty.

CONAI contribution. On a new pallet bought in Italy the invoice also shows the environmental contribution charged by CONAI, the Italian packaging recovery consortium: in 2026 plastic pallets are in band A1.1, at €40 per tonne, about €0.80 for a 20 kg pallet ^[10]. The plastic tax and the rules in other countries are covered in CONAI and plastic tax on plastic pallets.

New or used

Some manufacturers buy back and resell used plastic pallets, graded by condition: one of them sorts them into five quality grades and warns that availability is not continuous ^[4]. We have found no reliable public prices for used pallets, so we quote none.

Before you buy, check that the deck is not warped, because under constant load plastic gives way over time (creep) ^[5], and that feet, runners and reinforcements have no cracks. For food you need traceability and a declaration of compliance ^[6]: a used pallet of unknown origin is only suitable for packaged goods. The checklist, repair and recycling are covered in used plastic pallets.

From price to cost per trip: an example

The purchase price tells you little if you do not know how many times the pallet comes back. Take two values within the ranges, purely as an example:

• a €10 lightweight pallet shipped one-way: €10 for one trip;
• a €45 medium-duty pallet in a loop that brings it back.

With a maximum service life of 100 trips and the model from the guide plastic or wooden pallets:

In this example, break-even with the one-way lightweight pallet falls at around 22% of pallets lost per trip: at that point the medium-duty pallet makes 4.5 trips on average, and 45 / 4.5 = €10. Below that threshold, the more expensive pallet costs less. Redo the sum with your own prices: it leaves out return transport and washing, which weigh heavily in a real loop. According to one plastic pallet manufacturer, plastic costs 2 to 5 times as much as wood ^[9]: the same reasoning applies to the comparison with wood.

When rental makes sense

With pooling you do not buy the pallet. The operator delivers the pallets, collects them at destination, inspects and repairs them, and you pay for the service ^[7]; the pallets remain the operator's and cannot be bought ^[8]. The price is not public; you need a quote.

Rental makes sense when you deliver to many consignees and cannot recover the pallets yourself. The items in the rental fee and the break-even between buying and renting are in renting or buying plastic pallets.

To choose class, size and design before you ask for a price, start from how to choose a plastic pallet.

The three flat pallets offered by ROLL

ROLL does not sell generic plastic pallets. Among flat pallets it offers only these three, each for a specific use.

For pallet racking ROLL PP69 1200×800 with 3 steel bars, 16 kg; 1,200 kg racking load according to the manufacturer’s datasheet. Designed for rack storage, with the pallet spanning two beams.

For hygienic environments ROLL PPH1 H1 type with closed runners, no steel bars, washable. Made from recycled material: not for direct food contact.

For floor handling ROLL PP08 Closed flat deck, 4-way entry, 9 feet: for moving pallets on the floor with a pallet truck. Not designed for racking.

Found a mistake or an outdated figure? Write to us at info@roll-packaging.com