Plastic pallets delivered in Massachusetts

Labs and plants that want a clean deck

Kendall Square in Cambridge, the Seaport and Longwood districts in Boston, and the office parks along Route 128 hold one of the densest life sciences clusters anywhere. Drug developers, contract manufacturers, cell and gene therapy makers and their lab suppliers fill them, with production growing in Lexington, Waltham, Devens, Framingham and Norwood.

Massachusetts also has a large medical device industry, from catheters and implants to imaging and surgical equipment, spread through the 128 and 495 belts and Worcester County.

Clean rooms, GMP suites and controlled warehouses keep wood out because it sheds fibers and can harbor mold. Pharmaceutical and cleanroom pallets have smooth, closed decks that can be wiped and inspected. They're usually rated for lighter loads than a rackable, so match the maker's dynamic figure to your heaviest pallet of product, and ask whether a model is rated for racking before putting it on beams.

• Plastic pharmaceutical pallets →
• Plastic pallets for medical devices →

Rings around Boston

Greater Boston's freight runs on two beltways and the spokes between them. Route 128, signed as I-95 for much of its length, circles the inner suburbs. I-495 makes a wider ring from Newburyport through Lowell, Marlborough and Franklin to the South Coast, and its interchanges hold most of the region's large warehouses.

The Massachusetts Turnpike, I-90, runs west from Boston through Framingham and Worcester to Springfield and the New York line. I-93 heads north to New Hampshire, I-95 runs south toward Providence, and I-91 follows the Connecticut River through Springfield and Northampton. I-84 and I-395 cut southwest into Connecticut.

Worcester rail and the Port of Boston

CSX runs an intermodal terminal in Worcester, which brings domestic and international containers in by rail from the west and lets trucks finish the last miles into the 495 belt. Massport's Conley Container Terminal in South Boston handles the state's container ships, and the Black Falcon terminal and other piers take cruise ships and breakbulk.

Exporters loading boxes in Massachusetts can use plastic pallets without the heat treatment that ISPM 15 requires for wood. APHIS treats plastic as an alternative to wood packaging, outside its rules. Pick the footprint for the box and the receiving country.

• Plastic export pallets →

Fish, cranberries and the South Coast

New Bedford has long been the country's highest-value commercial fishing port, mostly on the strength of sea scallops. Gloucester, on Cape Ann, works groundfish and lobster. Processing houses in both run cold and wet, and solid-deck HDPE suits rooms that are iced and hosed every day.

Southeastern Massachusetts grows cranberries in bogs around Carver, Wareham and Middleborough, and the Ocean Spray cooperative is based in the region. Juice and sauce plants send cases into grocery distribution on 48x40 pallets.

• Plastic pallets for beverage →

How an order arrives

A truckload ships on a 53-foot van, about 100 inches wide inside, to a dock door. Many sites inside Route 128 and in Boston itself have tight docks, narrow streets or no room for a full trailer; tell us if a smaller truck or a liftgate is needed.

LTL serves the whole state, with the Cape, the islands and the Berkshires on longer routing. Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard deliveries go by ferry, so ask before planning one.

Selling surplus from Massachusetts

Labs move, device makers change packaging and DCs consolidate. Send the count, footprint, resin code, condition and pickup ZIP, and we make an offer to buy the pallets for reuse, or as regrind if they're cracked.

Hospitals and university research buildings in Boston also clear out pallets after equipment installs and lab fit-outs. Smooth-deck pharmaceutical models from those jobs are often in good shape; note whether they ever held biological or hazardous materials, since that decides whether they can be resold whole.