10 Benefits of Using a Baler, Compactor or Crusher for Your Business

UK commercial and industrial sectors generated 43.9m tonnes of waste and the “Waste from Households” recycling rate was just 45% (2018). Given that it’s widely accepted that business recycling rates are largely in-line or even subpar to household recycling rates, it’s safe to say that there’s a long way to go for the UK to achieve its recycling target of 65% by 2035.

The environmental benefits of recycling are clear, but businesses often cite barriers to recycling, such as a lack of:

• Space
• Resources
• Finances

Investing in cardboard balers, waste compactors or can crushers can pay dividends in your business’ journey towards an eco-friendlier operation. All of these machines reduce the volume of your commercial waste, saving you time, effort and expense.

1. Reducing Waste Collection Fees

Every commercial recycling bin empty incurs a fee. Bulky business waste means more frequent collections and those collection fees will soon add up.

A waste compactor squashes your waste cardboard or plastic, removing excess air, and thus reducing its volume, how often your bins need to be emptied and ultimately, how much you spend on comercial waste and recycling collection fees. 

2. Minimising Waste Sent to Landfill

Cardboard balers and plastic balers are especially effective at helping you to segregate your recyclables. In fact, for those businesses with limited space the baler’s chamber can also act as a storage unit until you’re ready to turn on the machine. Recycling Balers compact the materials into a neat, stackable bales which can be stacked prior to collection by a recycler.

Balers, cardboard compactors and crushers simplify the commercial waste recycling process, which means employees are less likely to throw recyclable materials into the general waste, where they will end up in a landfill.

3. Saves Space

Waste balers, waste compactors and can crushers all serve to press waste materials into smaller, denser blocks. In particular, bulky cans take up an inordinate amount of space in the recycling bin but using paint can crushers or aluminium can crushers for recycling minimises their volume.

All these recycling solutions allow you to store more waste in less space.   

4. Environmentally Friendly

Using waste compactors to decrease the volume of your waste means your waste collection contractor can transport more in a single collection, resulting in fewer collections overall and fewer vehicles on the road. Fewer trips mean lower carbon emissions and a reduced carbon footprint, which in turn boosts your green credentials.

5. Generates Revenue

Not only can you cut your costs but using cardboard balers and waste compactors could even help you to generate new revenue streams. The tied-up bales of cardboard or plastic produced by balers can be highly sought after if produced in large quantities at your premises. Provided the materials are clean, many recycling companies will buy the bales to be reused or sold onward as part of the circular economy.

6. Complies with Regulations

The UK government requires businesses to minimise waste, which means doing everything they reasonably can to prevent, reuse, recycle or recover waste. Compactors and balers help your business to comply with these regulations by reducing the volume of waste you send to landfill, which can also cut how much you pay in landfill taxes.

7. Reduced Manual Handling

There’s no doubt that flattening boxes prior to placing them in traditional bins can be a manual labour-intensive activity which if not done properly, can risk injury. In addition to this with the predicted rises in staffing costs in 2024, paying employees to slowly manually flatten individual cardboard boxes just isn't cost effective when there are many other tasks to be completed during the course of a busy day.

A waste baler, can compactor or plastic compactor machine are just a few examples of recycling machines that help you to automate the process. Using one of these solutions means that materials can be flattened at the press of a button, reducing the labour time involved in their disposal.

8. Improved Site Cleanliness

In some areas, collection of recyclables is completed fortnightly which can cause storage issues in premises with small bin stores. Compressed recyclables take up less space and installing a baler or compactor means that your cardboard and plastics can be stored inside the chambers until you’ve collected enough to hit the “on” switch. Unsightly overflowing recycling bins will become a thing of the past.

9. Reduced Cross-Contamination

Commercial waste regulations in some parts of the UK stipulate that businesses must store different types of waste separately to prevent cross-contamination, enabling them to be recycled. This is a key factor in cardboard recycling, where greasy or dirty cardboard can render the entire batch unrecyclable. Waste compactors and balers allow you to compress similar materials together, preventing the loose materials from getting mixed together.

10. Higher Recycling Rates

Having the right recycling machinery on site, reinforced by clear procedures and supported with high quality staff training can streamline your waste management operations. Put simply, the more straightforward you make the process of recycling within your business, the higher the rate of adoption by your employees.

Explore Our Recycling Solutions

At QCR, we know that commercial waste recycling must make sound business sense. Our range of recycling solutions spans everything from plastic balers to can crushers. Speak to our expert team to discover our practical recycling solutions for rent or sale.