Which Parts of Your Cardboard Baler to Maintain Regularly

Once you’re regularly using your cardboard baler, whether you’re a smaller independent business or a multi-national, you may wonder how you ever survived without it. A cardboard baler streamlines your recycling and waste process, saving you space and time. One of the biggest attractions of a quality waste baler is how it allows you to compact and organize cardboard and paper waste for recycling. But what happens when a baler breaks or malfunctions? Let’s explore cardboard baler maintenance, and how to ensure yours is always in tip-top condition.

Prevention is important

As with so many things in life, the best way to prevent any downtime is to avoid it in the first place. The truth is that cardboard balers are incredibly low maintenance and will work hard for you for years to come if they’re maintained properly. This means exercising care with what goes into the baler. It’s not rocket science: if it’s not cardboard or paper, it probably shouldn’t go into the baler!

Avoid letting metals find their way into the machine –– and definitely watch out for aerosols or gas containers, which can be messy or even lethal if punctured. Wood is another no-no, and will damage the mechanisms, as will things like glass.

It may seem simple, but accidents do happen, so make sure that only properly trained and responsible staff are allowed to use the baler, and that they have a safety protocol to follow. You’ll need to make sure that the cardboard is actually recyclable. Dirty or contaminated cardboard is difficult to recycling and often not excepted by recyclers. Sometimes, certain textiles and foam materials can be compacted in a baler, but you’ll need to be 100% certain about this before you take any risks. Check with your supplier before baling anything other than paper, cardboard, or soft plastics.

Get your baler maintenance taken care of

When you partner with QCR, you don’t need to worry at all about cardboard baler maintenance, since you’ll likely be renting rather than owning the baler. This means that QCR is responsible for maintaining and repairing all breakdowns and will step in and cover any replacement of broken parts as well as the labour needed to fit them (as long as there is no malicious use which as caused harm to the equipment). In other words, no laborious self-maintenance is required, beyond making sure that you’re only putting the right materials into the baler. Maintenance is included in the service.

One of the benefits of this approach is that you can be assured your baler will be up and running again in no time, with minimal disruption to business. You can trust that the repairs are being carried out by professionals who have plenty of experience and know what they’re doing.

And for the small minority of customers who do opt to own their balers rather than rent them, QCR can still help and advise in the event of a breakdown and provide service contracts for peace of mind. Cardboard balers are sturdy and robust machines that can withstand plenty of wear during their lifetime. In the rare event that they fail, repairs are usually straightforward.

Making your baler work for you

Cardboard balers really are the workhorses of a business’ recycling plan. They’re there to take work off your hands, saving you the space you’d otherwise need to store bulky materials, and the time needed to break boxes down and organize them neatly, both for storage and for sending off for recycling. They’re made even more practical if you rent, rather than own.

QCR likes to think of balers not as an investment but rather a practical monthly rental expense that helps you streamline procedures and save you time and money, not to mention making it easier to recycle. Fewer recycling collections from your workplace means you can reduce up to 75% of carbon emissions, for example

QCR don’t collect wastepaper and cardboard themselves, but they have a network of connections they can suggest ways to make the process quick and easy. As your business grows, you may decide to go for a cardboard shredder instead, which is a popular choice. Shredded cardboard can be reused in multiple ways before being recycled. If you don’t need a shredder just yet, however, you may still need a baler. In this case, renting one makes most sense, as you can use it as long as needed, return it when you’re ready to transition to a shredder or bigger baler and know that on rare occasions when malfunctions occur, that these would be taken care of for you.