Plastic pallets delivered in Arkansas

Northwest Arkansas and the retail supplier trade

Three large companies are based in a short stretch of Benton and Washington counties: Walmart in Bentonville, Tyson Foods in Springdale and the trucking and intermodal carrier J.B. Hunt in Lowell. Hundreds of consumer-goods makers keep sales offices in Bentonville, Rogers and Fayetteville to work with the retailer.

Suppliers who ship into a big retailer's distribution centers follow that retailer's routing guide, which sets the pallet footprint, height, labeling and often which pallet types it will accept. Read that guide before buying plastic for outbound loads. Plastic fits most easily inside a supplier's own plant, in a returnable loop with its own customers, or for display-ready half pallets where the guide allows them.

I-49 is the corridor through the region, running from Fort Smith north through Fayetteville, Springdale and Bentonville toward Joplin and Kansas City. Many of the supplier warehouses sit along it and along US 412.

• Plastic pallets for grocery distribution →
• 24x40 half pallets →

Interstates and the river

I-40 crosses Arkansas from Fort Smith through Little Rock to West Memphis, where it meets I-55 and the Memphis bridges. It is one of the busiest truck routes in the country, carrying freight between the Southeast and the Southwest. I-30 runs from Little Rock to Texarkana and Dallas. I-530 heads south to Pine Bluff, and I-555 links Jonesboro to I-55.

The Arkansas River carries barges on the McClellan-Kerr navigation system, from the Mississippi through Pine Bluff, Little Rock and Fort Smith to Oklahoma. The Port of Little Rock has an industrial park on the river with rail and barge access.

Chicken plants across the state

Arkansas ranks among the top broiler-producing states, with processing plants across the northwest and in towns such as Russellville, De Queen, Batesville and Fort Smith. Poultry plants wash and sanitize every shift and hold product in coolers and blast freezers.

In those rooms, a solid-deck HDPE pallet without hollow pockets is the usual choice. It drains, takes hot water and sanitizer, and stays tough in the freezer. For food-contact use, ask the maker for its documents on the exact model; 21 CFR 177.1520 covers the resin, not the finished part.

• Plastic pallets for meat and poultry →

Rice, paper and the Delta

Arkansas grows more rice than any other state, most of it in the eastern Delta. Riceland Foods, a farmer-owned cooperative, mills and packs rice in Stuttgart. Bagged rice for grocery goes out on 48x40 pallets, while export lots often go in containers through Gulf or East Coast ports.

Plastic export pallets avoid the ISPM 15 heat-treatment mark that wood needs, since APHIS treats plastic as an alternative to wood packaging. The Delta also has paper and pulp mills that ship heavy rolls, which need a high dynamic rating and a deck that won't dent the roll.

• Plastic export pallets →

Steel in the northeast, bromine in the south

Mississippi County, in the northeast corner near Blytheville and Osceola, has become one of the largest steelmaking counties in the US, with minimills on the river fed by scrap and barge freight. Mills and their service centers ship coil, rebar and wire, but they also take in refractories, alloy additions and maintenance parts on pallets that must carry dense, concentrated weight.

South Arkansas sits on the Smackover brine formation, and plants around Magnolia and El Dorado extract bromine from it for flame retardants, drilling fluids and other chemicals. El Dorado also has a refinery and chemical makers. Chemical drums and IBC totes ride best on a 48x48 or 44x44 drum pallet, and polyethylene resists many of the liquids that would soak into wood after a leak.

• Plastic pallets for chemicals →
• Drum plastic pallets →

Shipping and selling in Arkansas

Truckloads ship on a 53-foot van, about 52.5 feet by 100 inches inside, to your dock. Nestable models fit the most per load. LTL reaches Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas often, and the Delta and Ouachita towns on longer routing; tell us about dock height and liftgate needs.

To sell surplus or cracked plastic pallets from an Arkansas plant, send the count, footprint, resin code, condition and pickup ZIP. We answer with an offer to buy them as pallets or as regrind.

• Sell your plastic pallets →