Stretch Film Guide for Malaysia: Hand Rolls, Clear vs Black, and How to Wrap a Pallet So It Stays Wrapped

2 October 2026

Short answer: stretch film holds a load together by tension, not by glue and not by heat. It only works when it is pulled as it goes on and when the first turns tie the load to the pallet. For hand wrapping, a 500 mm hand roll of stretch film is the standard tool. Start with two or three turns around the base that catch the pallet deck, spiral up with each turn overlapping the last by about half, finish the top, and come back down. Clear film is the default. Black film is for when the contents should not be seen.

What stretch film is

Stretch film is a thin, elastic plastic film, normally made of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE). You pull it as you wrap. The film tries to return to its original length, and that pull is what squeezes the cartons together and holds them against the pallet. It clings to itself, so it needs no tape and leaves no adhesive on the goods.

It is often confused with two other things.

Material	How it holds	Typical use
Stretch film	Tension. Pulled tight by hand or by a machine	Pallets, bundles, furniture padding
Shrink wrap	Heat. Placed loosely, then shrunk with heat	Retail multipacks, bottled drinks, boxed sets
Cling film	Light cling only. Food grade, very little pull	Food in the kitchen. Not a packaging material

If someone asks for “shrink wrap” for a pallet and there is no heat gun involved, what they want is stretch film.

The rolls in our range

Our range is hand rolls. All are used without a machine.

Roll	Width	Sold as	What it is for
Clear stretch film	500 mm	2.2 kg roll, or box of 6	General pallet wrapping and bundling
Black stretch film	500 mm	2 kg roll, or box of 6	Pallet wrapping where the contents should be hidden
Mini stretch film	Narrow	Single handheld roll	Bundling small items, cables, light parcels, loose lengths

A box of six is the sensible buy for a warehouse or a shop that wraps pallets every week. A single roll is enough for a house move or an occasional shipment.

Hand roll or machine roll

A hand roll is light enough to carry around a pallet, usually 2 to 3 kg. A machine roll is much heavier and fits a pallet wrapping machine, which turns the pallet and stretches the film far more than a person can.

Hand wrapping suits a business that wraps a few pallets a day. It needs no equipment and no floor space. Its weaknesses are that the result depends on the person, and that it is tiring work done bent over and walking backwards. A wrapping machine is worth pricing once pallets go out all day, every day. Suppliers commonly put that point at around a dozen or more pallets a day. Machine rolls do not work by hand, and hand rolls do not fit most machines, so buy the roll for the method you actually use.

How to wrap a pallet by hand

Before the film comes out, the load has to be right. Film holds a good stack together. It does not fix a bad one.

Heavy cartons at the bottom, light ones on top.
Cartons stacked square, with nothing hanging over the edge of the pallet.
A flat top. Fill gaps or remove the odd carton that sticks up.

Then wrap.

Anchor the film. Pull out about a metre, squeeze the end into a rope and tie it or tuck it around one corner of the pallet.
Lock the load to the pallet. Make two or three turns around the base. The film should cover the bottom row of cartons and the top edge of the pallet deck together. This is the step that stops the whole load sliding off the pallet under braking. Keep the fork openings clear.
Spiral up. Walk around the pallet, pulling the film tight, and raise the roll a little on each turn so each layer covers about half of the one below.
Finish the top. Make two turns at the top, with the film a few centimetres above the top edge so it folds over the corners.
Spiral back down. A second pass crossing the first is what gives the wrap its strength.
Cut and press. Tear the film and wipe the tail flat against the wrap. It clings by itself.

The corners do most of the work. Film is tightest where it turns a corner and loosest along the flat sides, so pull hardest as you come round each corner.

Check it. Push the top of the load with your hand. The load and the pallet should move as one piece. If the cartons shift and the pallet stays still, the base turns did not catch the pallet, and the wrap needs redoing from the bottom.

How much film a pallet uses

You can estimate this with a tape measure. A common pallet size here is 1,200 x 1,000 mm, which is 4.4 m around.

Take a load 1.2 m high. With 500 mm film and a half overlap, each turn climbs 25 cm. That is about five turns to climb the load, plus two extra turns at the base and two at the top. Nine turns at 4.4 m is roughly 40 m of wrap. Coming back down adds about four more turns, which brings the total close to 60 m. The film is stretched as it goes on, so the amount that leaves the roll is somewhat less than that.

So a hand roll wraps a handful of full pallets, not dozens. Short loads, half pallets and furniture use far less.

Why two rolls of the same weight are not the same

In Malaysia, hand rolls are usually sold by weight and width, for example 500 mm x 2.2 kg. Weight does not tell you length. Length depends on thickness, which is measured in microns. Hand film on the market commonly runs from about 12 to 23 micron or more.

For film alone, the arithmetic is:

length in metres = film weight in grams ÷ (width in metres x thickness in microns x 0.92)

The 0.92 is the density of LLDPE. For 2 kg of film at 500 mm wide:

Thickness	Length of 2 kg of film
12 micron	about 360 m
17 micron	about 255 m
20 micron	about 215 m
23 micron	about 190 m

Two things follow from this.

Thinner film gives more metres, and thicker film gives more strength per layer. Thin film suits light, square loads of cartons. Thick film resists tearing on sharp corners and holds heavy loads with fewer turns. Neither is better in general.

The core is part of the weight on many listings. The paper core of a hand roll can weigh several hundred grams. A roll sold by gross weight contains less film than the label suggests. When you compare two suppliers, ask for the thickness and the core weight, then compare price per metre of film. We are glad to give you both figures for our current stock if you ask.

Clear or black

Clear is the default. You can read carton labels and barcodes through it, count the load, and see a crushed or wet carton without cutting anything.

Black hides what is on the pallet. That is useful for high-value stock on a shared lorry, for goods left in a loading bay, and for a house move where you would rather not show the neighbours what you own. Some warehouses also use black to mark one group of pallets, such as returns or held stock, apart from the rest.

Two cautions with black film. Labels must go on the outside of the wrap, because nothing can be read through it. And a dark pallet left in direct sun gets hot, which matters for anything that melts, softens or spoils.

Our climate

Stretch film and Malaysian humidity need some care together.

Wrap dry goods only. Film does not breathe. Cartons that go in damp stay damp, and corrugated board loses strength as it takes up moisture. The mechanism is in our guide to cartons going soft in humidity.
A spiral wrap is open at the top. For rain between the lorry and the door, lay a plastic sheet over the load first and wrap over its edges.
Stretched film in the sun does not last. Ordinary film is not made for months outdoors. It turns brittle and splits. Store wrapped pallets under a roof.
Do not seal wood, leather or fabric in film for weeks. For furniture, the film goes over padding, not onto the surface. The furniture wrapping guide explains why, and the self storage guide covers longer storage.

What stretch film does not do

It does not cushion. It adds no protection against impact. Fragile goods need bubble wrap or foam inside the carton. See the bubble wrap guide.
It does not protect corners from the film itself. Tight film crushes the top edges of soft cartons. Paper edge protectors down the four corners spread the pressure, and a layer pad on top keeps the top row flat.
It does not replace a strong carton. A pallet stacked three or four layers high needs board that can take the stack. Our note on 3-ply and 5-ply cartons covers the choice.
It does not replace tape on a carton. Film holds cartons to each other. Tape holds each carton shut.

Other uses for a hand roll

Holding a moving blanket or PE foam around furniture.
Keeping drawers and doors shut during a move, over padding.
Bundling long items such as curtain rods, mop handles, pipes and timber lengths. The mini roll is made for this.
Holding two or three cartons together as one handling unit.
Keeping a stack of flattened cartons together for storage.

Six common mistakes

Not catching the pallet. The load is wrapped beautifully and is not attached to anything.
No tension. Film laid on loosely is a dust cover. It has to be pulled.
Too little overlap. Turns that only just touch leave weak bands that open up.
Wrapping a bad stack. Overhang and uneven tops cause more collapsed pallets than thin film does.
Covering the label. Layers of film over a barcode make it hard to scan, and black film makes it impossible.
Buying on price per roll. Compare price per metre at the same thickness.

Storage and disposal

Keep rolls in their box, standing on end, away from sun and heat. A roll with a dented edge tears every time it is pulled, so do not drop them or stack heavy things on them.

Used stretch film is LLDPE, which is a recyclable plastic, but whether a recycler takes it depends on the recycler and on how clean it is. If your business produces it in volume, keep it separate from other waste, free of labels and tape, and ask your collector.

Checklist

Heavy at the bottom, square stack, flat top, no overhang
Edge protectors on soft or crush-prone cartons
Top sheet first if the pallet will see rain
Film anchored to a corner of the pallet
Two or three base turns that catch the pallet deck, fork openings clear
Spiral up with a half overlap, pulling at the corners
Two turns over the top edge, then spiral back down
Push test: load and pallet move as one
Label on the outside, on a flat face
Stored under a roof, off a wet floor

FAQ

What is the difference between stretch film and shrink wrap?

Stretch film is pulled tight around a load by hand or by a machine and holds by its own tension, with no heat involved. Shrink wrap is a different film that is placed loosely around a product and then heated with a heat gun or a tunnel so it shrinks to fit. Pallets and furniture are wrapped with stretch film. Shrink wrap is mostly used for retail packs such as bottled drinks and boxed sets.

How many times should I wrap a pallet with stretch film?

Start with two or three turns around the base, catching the pallet deck. Then spiral upwards with each turn overlapping the previous one by about half the film width, put two turns around the top, and spiral back down. For a light, square load of cartons, one pass up and one pass down is a common starting point. Heavy, tall or irregular loads need more turns, especially around the base.

How many metres are in a 2 kg roll of stretch film?

It depends on the film thickness and on how much of the weight is the paper core. For film alone, the length in metres is the film weight in grams divided by the width in metres, the thickness in microns and 0.92. On that formula, 2 kg of film at 500 mm wide is about 190 m at 23 micron and about 255 m at 17 micron. Ask the supplier for the thickness and the core weight before comparing two rolls on price.

Should I use black or clear stretch film?

Use clear film unless you have a reason not to. It lets you read carton labels, count the load and see damage without cutting the wrap. Use black film when the contents should not be visible, for example high-value stock on a shared lorry or a personal move, or when you want to mark one group of pallets apart from another. A black-wrapped pallet needs its label on the outside of the film.

Is stretch film waterproof?

The film itself does not let water through, but a wrapped pallet is not a sealed pallet. A spiral wrap leaves the top open unless you cover it, and water can run in between the layers. For rain protection, put a plastic sheet over the top of the load first and wrap over its edges. Do not seal damp cartons inside film, because the moisture stays in and the board softens.

Where to get it

Clear, black and mini stretch film are on the shop with current prices, alongside layer pads and edge protectors, tape and packing tools and once-used Grade A cartons from RM1.10. Delivery is free on orders above RM300 across KL and Selangor.

Not sure how many rolls you need? WhatsApp +60 16-891 6381 or contact us with your pallet size, load height and pallets per week, and we will work it out with you. We are open Monday to Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday 9am–1pm.