Maximize Your Recycling: Vertical Balers For Cardboard & Recyclables

Baler sizes and types - what is the difference?

Before investing in a vertical baler, most customers consider which machine will be the best for their company's specific needs. This gives rise to a few questions that should and can be asked, such as how do I determine the right size? Are the smaller bales sellable? What is a horizontal baler vs vertical? What about tie off materials - is strapping better or wire? What if I’m baling different materials?

We will answer those questions and more.

The size of your baler

We have customers using Bramidan balers nationwide. Our experience in installations of Vertical balers has given us the following data and information that could be valuable for you too:

1. The space needed for your machine
2. The volume and waste materials your company needs to bale
3. Consideration of the bale size and weight
4. Most used electrical power (we offer single phase and three-phase)
5. Important reasons for baling (to make money, get a greener profile, reduce costs etc.)
6. The purchase market for your recyclables

Let’s take each of these individually:

1. How much space do you have?

When measuring for the space you will need to use the Depth, Width and Height (D/W/H) of the baler you are considering. Note that the top and bottom doors will need to be opened only slightly more than 90 degrees for bale ejection. You do not need to open it to 180 degrees.

Do you have any narrow spaces?

At times, there are buildings and surrounding areas that call for a smaller baler solution. Bramidan has found that places like hospitals, apartment buildings, beach community stores, older buildings, densely populated urban areas and the like will face logistical challenges when it comes to bales. This is even more common in cities like New York, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

The hallways, elevators, alley ways and other access points for trash and recycling are narrow and often put trash removal a fair distance from where it is generated. Small bales are ideal for these circumstances. Not only does it keep staff from having to haul boxes long distances more often, it allows the bale itself to be dolly pushed or pallet jacked to the curbside or other pick up area with ease. It also allows you to navigate small or narrow spaces.

Unfortunately, most architects do not put a lot of thought and effort into designing buildings with adequate, easy, or well laid out trash and recycling space. When that happens, small bales can save time, space and money.

Will your door impinge?

You will want to consider the placement of your baler in regard to aisles, doorways and walls. Bramidan balers come with left hinge configurations only.

Like your doors at home, you should consider who might be rounding a corner when a door is in use or if the ejection process interferes with workflow and transportation thoroughfare. Amount of use and frequency of impingement should be considered. It is common for balers to be placed near an aisle or dock door, for instance, since the ejection process is infrequent and typically only lasts a few minutes 1-2 times a day. The top doors of the baler are only open when loading.

How about your vertical space?

B series Bramidan balers use a piston type of cylinder and guide. Your vertical height will need to accommodate that space at its full extension. For instance, a B6030 reaches a height of 11 feet (132 inches) when fully extended. While it is not delivered fully extended, it will need that space when in operation. On that model, it is only the guide that will be moving externally – the cylinders are encased and stationary.

Low profile balers in our X series have internal cylinders and do not extend beyond the baler body so heights can typically fit under low roofs or racking.

You will find the drawings and specifications for each baler on their individual product pages online, as well as on the downloadable PDFs.

How does delivery and installation come into play?

Delivery of smaller balers can be accomplished through drop shipping. No installation is needed for single-phase Bramidan balers. The bigger balers, depending on the manufacturer, tend to need a forklift to off load them. Our balers have the advantage of a built in pallet. Even our bigger machines fit through an 8 foot dock door and are delivered standing up, verses lying down as most other manufacturers must. For all larger balers, installation should be performed by trained professionals.

2. What volume and types of waste material?

The volume of material will help determine the size of the baler. Each baler has a bale size that is noted in the specifications, and this may vary by material composition and density of material. Larger volumes of material usually require a larger baler. This is to reduce labor and maximize resale value of the material.

However, smaller bales can be as viable as larger ones depending on your goal. Redemption value is not the only value proposition of a baler. Reducing labor, cleaning up valuable space, loss prevention, safety, etc. are all reasons to use a baler.

The type of material you are baling also matters. Bags or sacks for instance, usually don’t require a larger bale size to retain their reuse or sales value. Other materials like shrink wrap are often taken and paid for in less than large bale sizes.

What can you bale?

We are often asked what a vertical baler can bale. The answer is – it depends. For one, different balers are better or less effective for different materials. Our X Series is better suited for “memory” materials such as shrink wrap, films, foams, plastics, and other materials that may push against the door a bit or expand more than cardboard when pressed. The X series has an integrated door that gives greater support to the door frame, putting less pressure on hinges.

Our B series can handle some memory materials but is better suited for cardboard, paper, and “crushable” materials. Check out our individual product pages for acceptable material types.

What are some material considerations?

To determine if a material is bale-able consider these few things:

• stopHow will it crush? If it breaks into tiny pieces, the material will not hold together so bales will tend to fall apart. For example, some plastics will splinter radically when put under pressure. It is referred to as “breaking in the brittle mode”.
• stopWhat is the length, width and thickness? If materials are too short, they won’t hold together. If too long, they may not crush properly, or you may have to reduce the size before baling. Material that is too thick cannot be crushed.
• stopToo rigid of a material will not work with press forces not intended to crush it. For example, wood pallets are best suited for an auger not a baler.
• stopCapped materials like soda or water bottles will not pop off unless you have enormous press force.
• stopMaterials that require draining will need a baler with a basin and to be galvanized or specially treated.

3. Bale size: Do you want mill-size or portability?

Cardboard tends to be a bit different in that the larger the bale, the more value it has baled.

Smaller bales are not worth as much as bigger bales because they have to be re-baled at the Material Redemption center or Mill.  Using cardboard, or what is known in the industry as OCC (Old Corrugated Cardboard) as an example, a mill sized bale or a bale that a mill will accept without re-baling is 60 inches long and weights more than 850 lbs. This bale is accepted by nearly all recyclers and if stacked in amounts of 8-10 bales will be picked up by most everyone who buys cardboard. Your hauler or a local recycler can either sell that bale of use it to pulp into new cardboard.

The size is standardized because it fits into a sea-land container to be shipped overseas for sale in other countries. Domestically milled cardboard is a bit less fussy about weights and sizes. Check with your recycler. Regional and company differences are a factor.

4. What about your electrical power?

Electrical can become confusing for people. In overly simplistic terms, you will have three types of power at your business: 1. Single phase 110/115V. This is what most of us have at home. 2. Single phase 208V. This can be common in parking structures to run lights. 3. Three phase power. The voltage for three-phase is usually 208, 230, 460, or 480. We won’t get into specifics, but the power requirements for balers will be one of these three. Bramidan’s three-phase motors are adjustable for any of the voltages in three-phase.

Some baler manufacturers limit the baler size to a particular type of power. For instance, Bramidan sells single phase and three-phase machines.  We make it simple. Our smaller balers run on 110V power. Our balers making 500 lbs. or bigger bales require three-phase power. For Bramidan, we do not offer a single phase 208 voltage baler nor a 60 inch baler with single phase.

You should be aware that some manufacturers do offer a single-phase version of the bigger baler. You will want to watch your bale size and motor temperature on this type of baler, as they tend to run hot and make smaller bales than a three-phase machine. They are often a bit slower on their cycle times.

There are also different amperage draw requirements on balers. This means that different balers may have different plug ends and some should be direct wired. On Bramidan’s smaller balers, we sell the B4 with a 15 amp plug end. This is the plug most of us are used to. It is the same plug used by most power tools. However, with balers that draw more amps, like our B5W, we have a 20 amp end. This site gives a pretty simple explanation of the differences.

Replacing a 15 amp receptacle with a 20 amp is an easy job for an electrician and should be very affordable for you.

5. Which motives and savings do you have for baling?

While we have been conditioned for the past 20-30 years to think of recycling in terms of making money, the benefits both economically and environmentally are myriad. For instance, baling can reduce labor costs.

Labor reduction
- is a matter of gaining efficiency with a machine.  It is not unusual to replace a full-time person who spent their days breaking down boxes and bringing them to a recycler with a baler. On average, that returns a minimum of over $20,000 a year. But it also returns them back to some other function which can again replace an annual wage, and so it goes in a cascade of labor benefit.

With a baler, the box crushing is done by the baler so one person does not have to be responsible – it can be shared by everyone. It will also take much less time as you simply throw the box in and let the baler do the work. Even though your will need to tie off a bale at some point, for the average company that will be once or twice a day. So you exchange 20-40 minutes a day for the 8 hours you get back.

Cost avoidance
-is another money path, but it is considered a “soft cost”. By reducing the material in your dumpster, the number of hauls or dumps should be reduced in an equivalent number. So if you reduce your trash by 50% just by taking boxes out of your dumpster, and your hauler dumps your trash once a week, that service should be able to extend to every two weeks, thus reducing your monthly bill.

While you can make money on bales, even at no sale value, it has reduced your costs which is recaptured in your bottom line.

Loss Prevention
- is very often overlooked as a potential benefit to baling. Stealing through the trash, especially in retail settings and some manufacturing is often the number-one way companies lose inventory. Hiding items in a bale is a much trickier affair. Not only can it get crushed, but when a bale is tied off, it is difficult not to notice when it is untied or un-banded to retrieve items.  Items that are stolen from businesses are often retrieved by others rather than an employee or the access tot eh trash bin affords a quick way to feed the item to an accomplice or to hide it for later retrieval. Trash bins that are locked are usually accessible to staff and most trash areas are not secured.

Weather and burglary threats
- While some will scoff at this, consider the danger of having to leave a back door ajar or unlocked so a staff member, working alone can empty trash at the end of a shift or during a shift. It is human nature to not want to lock the door just for a quick run to the trash.

Staff are also subjected to robbery in dimly lit trash corrals or allies leading to them. If you have staff that is particularly vulnerable, thieves will likely know that and can take advantage of it.

Weather can also be a threat. Sending a staff member to the trash during a lightening storm, snow or rain can result in a slip and fall injury or direct weather related injury.

Medical or injury
- claims can be very expensive. Just one event can cost on average over $30,000 of lost time, wage and God forbid a lawsuit. Amongst the most common injuries business pay for are trip and fall, improper lifting and injury due to repetitive stress, vehicular accidents and cuts from box cutters.

Vehicles that are present in trash areas are often not expecting people so that becomes a threat. Repetitive stress can come from braking boxes down all day and of course that box cutter can result in a nasty cut. Trip and fall we already mentioned, but also hoisting trash or recycling into a large dumpster. Many times, a building will only supply a dumpster with a very high lift height. Swinging trash or throwing boxes upward are much more likely actions to cause a muscle injury. And if you miss, the box or trash comes right back at you.

And let’s not forget about dumpster divers. Come on, admit that at least once in your life you dumpster dove for boxes. Be it for moving or some other need. People who get injured in your dumpster retrieving boxes will not hesitate to sue you for their bad judgement.

Space is valuable
- While we addressed this a little earlier on, space is probably the most overlooked expense people squander. Consider that just 10 boxes that are 2 foot cubes will take up 20 cubic feet of space. Now imagine that on a dock where you need room for inventory. Or consider racking space. If your cost per square foot to lease building space is $3.00 a square foot let’s say you swap out the 20 square feet bokes are taking up for a pallet of goods.

That space alone is costing you $60 plus the loss of inventory that could be in that same space. So using a simple example of 1 pallet which is roughly 16 square feet being valued at $1,000 of product. Now that space is costing your $1,060 with boxes that should have been baled and set aside outdoors where they belong.

The point is, you are paying a price right now for how you do things – you just don’t know what that is because you have never had to calculate it. When you do, you will likely find a baler saves you much more than it cost both short and long term.

6. The purchase market for your recyclables

Not everyone has space for large bales. Smaller bales will often be picked up by an independent recycle entrepreneur. Typically, this is a person with a truck who will hoist your small bale and sell it to a redemption center. 

To find these independents there are four places you can go. The first is to call the local redemption center and see if they can give you contact information from people who bring in cardboard like the picture shown. If not, perhaps they would be willing to give your business card to that person so they can contact you directly.

Second place to check is your local pharmacy or small store who makes bales. Walgreens tend to make them nationally, so ask them who picks theirs up and contact that person to pick yours up too. Ask your company’s neighbor. You might be surprised to find out they get their cardboard picked up. And finally do a social media post to invite people to take your bales.

How are Bramidan balers different than others?

When considering which baler, you will buy it is good to know how they are constructed, what features they come with and how easy or difficult they may be to operate.

At Bramidan, we are not in the business of dissing our competition. The fact is, there are some good balers out there. But there are some differences to consider.

Why is construction important?

The vast majority of balers on the market today were designed 30 years ago or more. The construction is limited by the design, and the methods with which to achieve the designs. Towards this end, most older manufacturers created steel channel designs that use channel shaped steel in jigs and rely heavily on welders and experience to put the baler together. These limitations can translate into issues.

Out of square issues. If the baler is out of square, it will never work right and will break down over time as the forces against steel wear faster. Doors don’t hang right, and material pushes against the doors and wear hinges and doors out quicker.

Channel steel is spaced so that your hand, hair, an apron or lab coat, a sweatshirt or any number of things can slip right through the space while the baler is moving. It creates pinch points.  

IN CONTRAST: Bramidan uses formed steel (remember we use robots to weld) which allows us to take advantage of more “architectural” designs and the end result is a fully enclosed chamber with none of the pinch points of openings.

Many older balers used magnetic sensors to keep their doors safe, but operators learned to use a magnet form home to override their safety systems. Some balers today do not address this flaw.

IN CONTRAST: Bramidan is CAT 3 certified and has redundant systems to keep the baler safe even under extraordinary circumstances. We meet and exceed American, European and Canadian standards for safety. No getting around our sensors.

Most balers use a single 6 inch cylinder with a plate or platen welded to it. This puts all of the stress on that weld joint as well as a circular clip at the top where it is held as the ram pushes down.

Imagine using one arm to push trash down in your trash can at home. Where is the force? On your wrists and shoulder, right? Same with a baler.

Cylinders are one of the most common failures in other balers and they are expensive and difficult to replace, usually requiring that the entire machine be removed and brought back to the shop to repair.

IN CONTRAST: Bramidan uses a large center guide and dual cylinders (on our B6030) and cross cylinders for low-profile machines. On the larger machines like the B6030 where press forces are greatest, the dual cylinders distribute the force more evenly not only over the platen or plate, but also over the material, giving you more even and denser bales.

What about height, how does that make a difference with a baler?

One feature of a Bramidan baler (B6030) is that it comes with the cylinders in the down position. This allows for less expensive delivery using what is referred to as a dry van rather than a dedicated flatbed truck. The price difference in deliveries can be significant.

The fact that the baler is delivered at under 8 feet means it fits through a standard dock door. This can mean the difference between needing a forklift, and laying the baler down or not and that is all expense for those who are installing and purchasing the baler.

Is there ever a case when the height assist and install?

All the time. In a very recent case, the customer needed a baler that could fit under a space that was 11 foot 6 inches. It had wire conduit that was put in around the existing baler in the ceiling. With a traditional baler, it is delivered with the cylinders up so the forklift could not place it with this clearance.

Since the Bramidan baler was delivered with the cylinders down and could be raised in place, it allowed the baler to be placed first, getting rid of the need to tip it into place or for the calculation of the additional height needed to have the baler lifted. IT fit right into place and everything was raised in place, giving an extra 6 inches when finished.

Does technology make a difference?

IOT or the Internet of things is something we have all heard about, but why is it important in business? Communication is the basis for understanding. This is true in life and true in business and being connected to our equipment with smart data helps to provide data that can be acted upon. Something a simple as a reminder to do maintenance on your machine may be the difference between it working well for years or having issues prematurely.

Machines require input and by them providing output it is not unlike a body signaling when it is hurt or when something needs adjusting. You would not ignore your car’s feedback when it says its needs oil without potentially serious consequence.

Smart machines like the Bramidan balers allow technicians to understand the stresses the baler has been under and when something is out of place. Parts do wear out on all mechanical things so keeping on top of that helps insure you investment serves you at top performance for a long time.

It can also tell you how you are doing against sustainability goals, if there is anyone stealing bales from you and if you have several locations, how they compare in output. Stores doing similar sales should have similar bale output. It is extrapolations like this that can lead to lots of insight.