Glossary
Every term a packaging specification is likely to use, defined in the sense the trade actually uses it. Where a word means two different things in two product groups, both are given.
B
- Bin liner
- A plastic sack used to line a waste container. Specified by usable width and usable length in millimetres, not by the litre rating of the bin.
- Block pallet
- A pallet supported on nine blocks, accessible by fork from all four sides. The euro pallet is a block pallet.
- Blown film
- Stretch film extruded as a bubble and cooled in air. Hazy, loud off the roll, and far more resistant to tearing once punctured.
C
- Cast film
- Stretch film extruded onto a chilled roller. Clear, quiet off the roll, cheaper, and easier to run at high pre-stretch.
- Cling
- The property that makes stretch film stick to itself. Available one-sided, so wrapped pallets do not stick to each other in transit.
- Consolidated load
- One vehicle carrying goods from several orders or several suppliers, so each pays part of a full load rather than the whole of a small one.
- Containment force
- How hard wrapped film squeezes a load, measured in kilograms of pull. The property that actually keeps a pallet together.
- Core
- The cardboard tube a roll of film or sacks is wound on. Typically 0.5 to 1 kg.
- Curtainsider
- The standard European road trailer, 13.6 m long, taking 33 euro pallets on the floor.
D
- DAP
- Delivered At Place. The seller delivers to your address, carrying the freight risk the whole way. You handle import duty and clearance.
- Declaration of Conformity
- The signed document by which the manufacturer declares that packaging conforms, backed by technical documentation.
- Dunnage
- Loose timber or board used to secure a load inside a vehicle or container.
- Duty class
- Trade shorthand for the thickness band of a refuse sack — light, medium, heavy, extra heavy, rubble grade.
E
- Empty space ratio
- A packaging-volume measure under PPWR Article 24, capped at 50% for grouped, transport and e-commerce packaging from 2030.
- EPAL
- The licensed 1200 × 800 mm European pallet, and the association that licenses it. Built to UIC 435-2.
- EPR
- Extended producer responsibility. Who registers and pays for collection and recycling — decided nationally, and not the same as PPWR manufacturer.
- EXW
- Ex Works. The price covers the goods at the seller's premises and nothing else — you arrange collection, export, freight and import.
F
- FCA
- Free Carrier, named place. Who loads depends on where that place is — which is the part most people get wrong.
G
H
- HDPE
- High-density polyethylene. Roughly twice the tensile strength of LDPE per micron and much weaker against puncture.
I
L
- Lay-flat width
- The width of a sack or tube as it lies flat. A tube of lay-flat width P opens into a circumference of 2P.
- LDPE
- Low-density polyethylene. Stretches before it tears and resists puncture, which is why it is used for anything wet, sharp or heavy.
- LLDPE
- Linear low-density polyethylene. Tougher than LDPE for the same thickness, and the base polymer of almost all stretch film.
M
- Micron
- One thousandth of a millimetre. The unit polyethylene thickness should be quoted in, because it is unambiguous.
- Mil
- One thousandth of an inch — 25.4 microns, or 100 gauge. Used on North American specifications.
- MOQ
- Minimum order quantity. The smallest quantity a supplier will produce or ship for a given specification.
P
- Pallet overhang
- Cases extending beyond the edge of the pallet, losing the support of the deck below them.
- Pinwheel pattern
- A pallet layer in which some cases are turned ninety degrees so that a strip which would otherwise be wasted gets filled.
- Post-consumer recyclate
- Polymer recovered from material that has already been used and discarded by a consumer, as distinct from factory offcuts.
- PPWR
- Regulation (EU) 2025/40, applying since 12 August 2026. Replaces the packaging directive with a regulation that applies directly in every member state.
- Pre-stretch
- Elongating stretch film between geared rollers before it reaches the pallet. At 250%, one metre off the roll covers three and a half metres of load.
R
- Racking load
- What a pallet carries supported only at its ends, in beam racking. A property of the racking system, not of the pallet.
S
- Safe working load
- The load a pallet carries in normal handling and transit. EPAL publishes 1,500 kg for a compliant Euro pallet.
- Star seal
- A sack base sealed in a cross, with no corners. Spreads the load evenly and does not leak.
- Static load
- A term used loosely for a pallet on a flat floor. EPAL does not publish one; it publishes a 5,500 kg limit on the bottommost pallet in a stack.
#
- 1100 litre container
- The largest wheeled waste container in common commercial use, roughly 1330 × 1030 mm at the opening.