Charlotte region, NC and SC I-85 I-77 I-40
I-85
A plastic corrugated gaylord is a bulk box made from plastic corrugated board instead of paper board. It is made for closed-loop programs where the same box makes many trips, and it is sold to buyers who return it.
A paper corrugated gaylord is a one-way or few-trips container. Its strength drops when the board gets damp, and after a few trips it is worth its fiber as OCC. A plastic corrugated gaylord is built to be washed, reused and tracked. A plant that ships the same part to the same customer every week and takes the box back can run a closed loop with plastic and spread the cost over many trips.
If the box is not coming back, plastic is an expensive container to leave behind. Automotive packaging for ocean containers is generally expendable because the return costs too much (source). The longer the logistics leg, the less practical returnable packaging becomes (source). In those cases a triple wall paper box is the better tool, and when it arrives at the dock it is still worth a second use. See the truck and auto parts page.
Typical plastic gaylord footprints match paper: 48 x 40, 48 x 48 and 48 x 45 inches, with sidewalls from 24 to 50 inches. The size board lists the paper equivalents so you can compare the same footprint in either material.
We work mostly in corrugated fiberboard: bulk boxes, octabins and sleeve-and-tray sets. Plastic gaylords are a different product with a different supply chain. If your program is plastic, send the request and say so. We will tell you honestly what we can match and when the right answer is somebody else.
Tell us the footprint, the sidewall height, how many trips you expect and where the box returns. For paper boxes in the same footprint, the bulk box page is the next stop.
Plastic bulk containers are a different product from corrugated gaylords and are matched to different buyers. Give the footprint and height, the material if you know it, whether the bin folds or is rigid, and what it carried. Note cracks, missing latches and stains. Because plastic is often returnable, say whether the containers belong to you or to a supplier before you offer them.
Automotive packaging for ocean containers is generally one-way, because returning it costs too much (source). Packaging Corporation of America offers expendable triple-wall corrugated for overseas automotive shipments in place of returnable plastic containers or metal racks (source). The longer the logistics leg, the less practical returnable packaging becomes, and spare parts shipped to service centers usually go one-way in expendable packaging.
A returnable container is a plastic, metal or wood container that cycles between a supplier and a plant. When returnables run short, a supplier ships a backup pack in expendable corrugated. A backup pack should match the returnable's footprint and its standard pack quantity, meaning how many parts go in one container under the customer's packaging spec. Automotive and defense suppliers' packaging engineers ask for expendable gaylords on a 48-inch footprint for exactly this.
If you own plastic bulk bins and the loop is closed, you probably do not want to sell them. If the loop is broken or the lane is long, expendable paper may serve better. Describe which situation you are in, and we say plainly which of the two the request fits.
A returnable container earns its cost back only if it makes enough round trips. Where the freight home costs close to the container's value, one-way corrugated wins, and that is the situation on long ocean lanes. Where the loop is short and the customer is a few miles away, plastic and metal containers tend to earn out. Neither choice is right for every lane, and a plant often runs both at once.
Many automotive suppliers use die-cut corrugated dividers and trays inside the gaylord, so the parts do not touch each other. If your boxes carry dividers or inserts, say so in the request, and say whether the inserts stay with the box. A box with fitted inserts is a different product from a plain one, and the buyer is a different buyer.
Picture a supplier that ships brackets to an assembly plant a few hundred miles away. The plant owns steel racks that circulate, and a rack shortage appears in a bad week. The supplier ships the overflow in expendable gaylords on the same 48-inch footprint, labeled with the plant's part number and counted to the plant's standard pack quantity. The plant recycles the boxes. Nothing in that story needs a plastic container, and nothing in it asks the plant to change its racks.
Searchers use the word for plastic bulk containers on a pallet footprint. The plastic corrugated gaylord here is a bulk box made of plastic board, not a rigid tote.
The plastic can be recycled at its end of life, but it is a different stream from OCC. Ask the recycler how it takes plastic board.
Send a request with the count, footprint and condition. We say what we can take and what is better sent on.
Count, footprint and wall count are enough to start.
No prices, minimums or times are stated here.