How To Choose The Right Baler

All businesses generate a certain amount of waste and a large percentage of this waste will be recyclable. The way you manage your recyclable waste materials will largely depend upon the quantities produced. Smaller amounts can usually be efficiently managed by separating the different materials into some suitably sized recycling bins ready for collection, but businesses producing larger quantities of recyclable waste would benefit from the use of a baler to compact their recycling materials.

Businesses requiring the use of a baler must make a variety of considerations into account to help them choose the right piece of equipment to suit their needs:

1. Type Of Material

Balers are a piece of equipment that is used to improve your recycling output, by enabling you to bale your clean waste plastic, paper, cardboard and metals into a compact bale, ready for recycling. Firstly, you will need to examine your waste stream to determine which materials are produced in a sufficient quantity for baling.

2. Single Ram or Two Ram?

A business looking for a baler to process fibrous materials that are easily compressed, such as office waste, shredded paper and soft plastic, will usually find a single ram baler is more than adequate to do the job. For materials with a high memory retention that makes them harder to compress, such as plastic bottles, Styrofoam and aluminium containers, a two ram baler is more powerful, making it a more suitable and efficient choice.

You will generally find that a single ram machine is more automated than a two ram and will therefore require less labour to produce your bales – something to keep in mind!

3. Vertical or Horizontal?

The majority of businesses tend to opt for a vertical baler to handle the volume of recyclable material they produce, but those producing high volumes of waste may need to consider a horizontal baler.

4. Thinking Ahead

If you are purchasing your baling equipment, it is crucial to think ahead and consider your future growth. A baler that fits the bill now may not have the capacity to keep up with the flow of waste one or two years down the line as your business grows.

To avoid having to replace your equipment sooner than you would ideally like to, it is wise to purchase a machine that is able to cope with a slightly larger capacity than your current waste output. Another excellent alternative is to rent machinery; a more flexible solution that makes it far easier to change the size or type of machine to suit your changing needs.

5. Equipment Size

The size of the baler you opt for will need to factor in the amount of waste produced, as well as the available space for positioning the machine on your premises. It is crucial to take into account the working space around the machine in addition to it’s actual footprint. There must be an adequate amount of space in the immediate area for loading and unloading the bales as well as a suitable space for their storage prior to collection.

Keep in mind that bale sizes vary a huge amount and larger machines will produce bales of a size and weight that require machinery to move them. If this is the case there also needs to be plenty of space to use this machinery safely and efficiently in the same area.

6. Collection

Look into your collection options, establishing how many bales would be sufficient to make a collection worthwhile and get an idea of the likely revenue that you could produce by increasing your recycling output with a baler.

Become A Greener & More Sustainable Business

A baler could help your business to become greener and more sustainable and with the option to rent, it is possible for any business to improve the way they manage their waste and reduce their costs without actually having to invest in machinery.

Get in touch with our team to find out more about the machinery, both new and used, we have on offer here at Phoenix Compactors & Balers.