Stretch Wrap vs Shrink Wrap: What is the Difference?

Stretch wrap is stretched around a load while cold and held on by its own tension. Shrink wrap is laid loosely over an item and then heated so it shrinks tight against it. Stretch wrap secures pallets and bundles. Shrink wrap wraps individual items. One uses tension, the other uses heat.

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The short answer

Stretch wrap is applied cold. The operator or the machine pulls the film out, the film elongates, and the tension stored in the stretched film is what squeezes the load together. Nothing is heated and nothing is glued. Shrink wrap is the opposite order of operations. The film is sealed into a loose bag or sleeve around the item first, then heat is applied and the film contracts onto the shape underneath. Take the heat away and shrink wrap just sits there loose.

For the full detail on how stretch wrap itself behaves, including film gauges, cast and blown film and how to wrap a pallet properly, see our guide on what stretch wrap is. This page is only the comparison.

How each one holds on

Stretch wrap holds on through elastic recovery and cling. The film is LLDPE, which stretches a long way without tearing and then tries to pull back to its original length. That pull-back is the containment force that keeps cartons on a pallet. A cling additive makes the layers grip each other so no tape is needed.

Shrink wrap holds on because the film has a memory. During manufacture the film is stretched and then cooled while still stretched, which locks that orientation in. When you heat it again the film relaxes back towards its unstretched size and tightens onto whatever is inside. Once it has cooled it stays that shape permanently, which is why shrink wrap gives that glossy, skin-tight finish on a multipack.

Stretch wrap vs shrink wrap compared

Feature	Stretch wrap	Shrink wrap
How it is applied	Wound around the load while cold, under tension	Placed loosely over the item, then heated
Heat required	None	Yes, a heat gun or a shrink tunnel
What holds it on	Elastic recovery of the stretched film, plus cling	The film contracts on heating and stays contracted
Typical film	LLDPE	Polyolefin, PVC or shrink grade polyethylene
What it is used for	Securing cartons to a pallet, bundling, unitising a load	Wrapping one item, multipacks, tamper evident covering
Equipment needed	A hand dispenser, or a turntable or robot wrapper	A sealer to close the film, then a heat source
Appearance	Layered and slightly hazy, overlaps visible	Tight and glossy, follows the shape of the item
Removing it	Cut it and the tension releases straight away	Cut it and the film is finished, it cannot shrink twice

Which one do you actually need?

Choose stretch wrap if you are holding a stack of cartons on a pallet, bundling lengths of timber or pipe, keeping dust and moisture off a load in a truck, or you want the wrap done in under a minute with no power tool involved. Choose shrink wrap if you are packaging a single retail item, joining a few units into one saleable multipack, or you want a tamper evident finish that shows if it has been opened. If the words in your job description are pallet, load or freight, it is stretch wrap. If the words are product, pack or display, it is shrink wrap.

The equipment each one needs

Stretch wrap needs very little. A 500mm roll on a hand dispenser is the whole kit for most Australian warehouses, and higher volume sites step up to a turntable or a robot wrapper. Shrink wrap needs two pieces of gear, not one. You need something to close the film around the item, usually an impulse sealer or an L-bar sealer, and then a separate heat source, either a hand held heat gun or a powered shrink tunnel. That extra gear is why most despatch areas reach for stretch wrap unless the finished look genuinely matters.

QIS does not stock heat shrinkable film. The centrefold plastic rolls above are LDPE covering film, useful for enclosing awkward items and for making large bags with a sealer, but they are not designed to shrink under heat.

Why the two names get mixed up

In Australian warehouses pallet wrap is routinely called shrink wrap, even by people who have never owned a heat gun. The habit comes from the finished appearance: a tightly wrapped pallet looks shrunk, so the word sticks. It matters when you are ordering, because asking for shrink wrap when you want pallet wrap can land you with the wrong product and the wrong equipment. If someone hands you a roll and there is no heat involved anywhere in the process, you are holding stretch wrap.

Australian context: pallets and load restraint

The Australian standard pallet is 1165 x 1165mm and about 150mm high, sized so two sit side by side across a 2400mm trailer. AS 4068, the standard that specified it, was withdrawn in November 2019, so the size is now a de facto convention rather than a current published standard. It is still what almost every load in the country is built on, and a square 1165mm footprint is what a 500mm roll of stretch wrap is spiralled around.

Load restraint is where the choice stops being cosmetic. Chain of Responsibility duties under Australian heavy vehicle law reach beyond the driver to everyone who influences how a load travels, including the people who pack and wrap it. The expectation is straightforward: the load must not shift, fall or become unstable in transit. Stretch wrap is what unitises a pallet so it behaves as one block, and on heavy or unstable loads it is often paired with pallet strapping for positive restraint. Shrink wrap plays no part in that job in Australia. It sits on the product, not on the pallet.

Related guides

Start with What is stretch wrap (pallet wrap)? for gauges, film types and wrapping technique. Then see What is LLDPE? for the resin that makes stretching possible, What is a µm? for film thickness, and What is centrefold plastic? for folded covering film.

If you are securing pallets, What is pallet strap? covers the other half of load restraint. To buy, visit our pallet wrap range.

Not sure which film suits your load? Contact our Brisbane team on 1800 555 343.