Packaging Glossary
Industry terms and definitions from A to Z.
B
- Bale
- A compressed, bound block of recyclable material — most often old corrugated cardboard (OCC) or plastic film — produced by a baler so it can be stored and shipped densely for recycling.
- Baler
- A machine that compresses loose cardboard, film, or other recyclables into bound bales. Vertical balers suit lower volumes; horizontal balers handle continuous, high-volume streams.
- Bill of Lading (BOL)
- The legal shipping document that lists the freight, quantities, parties, and terms for a load. It serves as the carrier's receipt and the contract of carriage.
- Block Pallet
- A pallet that uses solid blocks (rather than continuous stringers) to support the deck, allowing true four-way forklift and pallet-jack entry from all sides.
- Bulk Bag (FIBC)
- A Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container — a large woven polypropylene bag with lift loops, used to ship dry flowable products like resins, grains, sand, or chemicals. Rated single-trip or multi-trip.
- Bung
- The threaded opening (and its plug) on a closed-head/tight-head drum. Standard steel and plastic drums typically have a 2-inch and a 3/4-inch bung on the top head.
C
- Chamfer
- The beveled edge cut into the bottom deckboards of a pallet so pallet-jack wheels can roll up onto the deck smoothly.
- Closed-Head Drum
- A drum with a permanently fixed top head and bung openings, used for liquids. Also called a tight-head drum. Contrast with open-head.
- Combo Pallet
- A remanufactured pallet rebuilt from the sound, salvaged parts of several broken pallets. The lowest-cost recycled option, used for budget internal handling.
- Core (Pallet Core)
- A used pallet bought by a recycler as raw stock to repair, remanufacture, or grind. "Cores" trade as a commodity between recyclers.
- Corrugated
- Board made of one or more fluted (wavy) layers glued between flat liners. Wall count — single, double, triple — sets its strength. The material gaylord boxes and shipping cartons are made from.
D
- Deckboard
- One of the flat boards forming the top or bottom surface of a pallet. The top deck carries the load; the bottom deck spreads it and adds rigidity.
- Dimensional Weight
- A pricing method where a shipment is billed on its volume (cube) rather than actual weight when it is light but bulky. Common for parcel and some LTL freight.
- Drum
- A cylindrical shipping container, typically 55-gallon, made of steel, plastic (HDPE), or fiber. Sold open-head (removable lid) or closed-head (fixed top with bungs).
- Dry Van
- A standard enclosed semi-trailer (commonly 53 feet) used for palletized and boxed freight. The default trailer for most packaging shipments.
- Dunnage
- Inexpensive material — airbags, foam, blocking, scrap pallets, or boards — used to brace and protect freight inside a trailer or container so it doesn't shift.
E
- Edge Crush Test (ECT)
- A measure of a corrugated box's stacking strength — the force its walls can bear on edge. Higher ECT means more stacking strength, which rises with wall count.
F
- Food-Grade
- Materials and containers safe for direct food contact, governed in the U.S. by the FDA. For used containers, food-grade status also requires documented food-safe prior contents and proper reconditioning.
- Four-Way Entry
- A pallet design that lets forks enter from all four sides. Block pallets are naturally four-way; stringer pallets need notches cut into the stringers.
- Full-Flap Bottom
- A gaylord box bottom where all four flaps fully overlap to cover the entire base, distributing load and resisting forklift-tine puncture. Stronger than a partial-flap bottom.
G
- Gaylord Box
- A large corrugated bulk container sized to sit on a 48×40 pallet. Also called a bulk box, pallet box, or bulk bin. Graded by wall count, bottom style, and condition.
- GMA Pallet
- The 48×40-inch grocery-industry standard pallet (named for the Grocery Manufacturers Association). The most common pallet footprint in the U.S. and the benchmark for recycled-pallet pricing.
- Grade A (#1)
- A recycled pallet with all original, unrepaired stringers, clean and dry. The premium recycled grade, used for customer-facing, retail, and export loads.
- Grade B (#2)
- A structurally sound recycled pallet that has been repaired — plugged stringers or companion boards. Carries standard loads at 30–50% less than Grade A; used for internal freight.
H
- HDPE
- High-density polyethylene — the rigid plastic used for IBC tote bottles, plastic drums, and many plastic pallets. Recyclable through resin recyclers as HDPE regrind.
- Heat Treatment (HT)
- Heating wood packaging to a core temperature of 56°C for at least 30 minutes to kill pests, satisfying ISPM-15 for export. Marked "HT" within the IPPC stamp.
I
- IBC Tote
- An Intermediate Bulk Container — typically a 275- or 330-gallon HDPE bottle in a steel cage on a pallet, with a discharge valve. Used to ship and store liquids in bulk.
- IPPC Mark
- The "wheat stamp" applied to ISPM-15-compliant wood packaging, showing the IPPC symbol, country code, producer code, and treatment code (HT or MB).
- ISPM-15
- The international phytosanitary standard requiring solid-wood packaging used in international trade to be heat-treated or fumigated and marked. Does not apply to processed wood (plywood, OSB) or domestic-only shipments.
L
- LTL (Less-Than-Truckload)
- Freight that doesn't fill a trailer, shipped alongside other shippers' loads and priced by weight, class, and distance. Economical for a few pallets; full truckload is cheaper per unit at volume.
N
- NMFC / Freight Class
- The National Motor Freight Classification system that assigns LTL freight a class (50–500) based on density, handling, stowability, and liability. Class drives the rate; a wrong description can trigger a costly reclass.
O
- OCC
- Old Corrugated Cardboard — used cardboard collected and baled for recycling. A traded commodity whose price swings with paper-mill demand.
- Open-Head Drum
- A drum with a fully removable top secured by a lever-lock ring, allowing access to solids, pastes, or viscous products. Also called an open-top drum.
P
- Pallet Position
- One floor footprint for a pallet inside a trailer. A 53-foot dry van holds about 26 standard 48×40 pallet positions on the floor, more if loads can be double-stacked.
R
- Rebottled IBC
- A used IBC tote fitted with a brand-new HDPE inner bottle inside a reused, inspected cage — giving a like-new interior at less than the cost of a fully new tote.
- Reconditioned IBC
- A used IBC tote whose original bottle has been cleaned, pressure-tested, and inspected, with the cage and pallet repaired as needed. Can be food-grade when prior contents are documented.
- Regrind
- Plastic that has been ground from used products (pallets, drums, bottles) for remelting into new items. The recycled feedstock recovered from plastic packaging at end of life.
- Remanufactured Pallet
- A pallet rebuilt from the salvaged sound components of multiple scrapped pallets. Also called a combo pallet. The lowest-cost recycled tier.
- Reusable Transport Packaging (RTP)
- Packaging designed for many trips — pallets, totes, bulk bins, dunnage — rather than single use. The category Repackify's marketplace centers on.
- Reverse Logistics
- The flow of goods and packaging back up the supply chain — returns, recovery, reconditioning, recycling — as opposed to outbound distribution.
S
- Skid
- A pallet with only a top deck and no bottom deckboards, sitting on its stringers or feet. Cheaper and easier to drag, but less stable for racking and stacking.
- Stringer
- The lengthwise board (or block) running between the top and bottom decks of a pallet that carries the load. A pallet's grade hinges largely on whether its stringers are original or repaired.
T
- Tight-Head Drum
- Another name for a closed-head drum — a drum with a fixed top and bung openings, used for liquids.
- Triple-Wall
- Corrugated board with three fluted layers, the strongest standard board. Triple-wall gaylords handle the heaviest loads and the highest stacks.
U
- UN Marking
- The stamped code certifying a container (IBC, drum) for regulated/hazmat service — encoding container type, material, packing group, capacity, test pressure, and year. Hazmat IBCs also require periodic retesting.
V
- Virgin Resin
- New, never-recycled plastic feedstock. Food-grade and spec-critical containers often require virgin resin, whereas reground material suits non-critical uses.