Businesses that generate a lot of cardboard waste invest in balers because they allow them to handle the waste more effectively and also help the environment by recycling cardboard waste. Cardboard balers are used consistently in commercial and industrial sectors such as manufacturing, restaurants, retailers, hospitals, schools and printers.
There are many types of cardboard. You can find a really useful guide breaking these down here. Cardboard balers are quite versatile and can compress all types of cardboard, regardless of shape, size or usage. Typically forms such as whole boxes, plates, sheets, tubes, fibreboard and paperboard can ALL be placed in a baler.
Cardboard is a high-quality material and you should definitely recycle it. Many companies are happy to pay for cardboard waste, so in the long run, this can even become a stable stream of revenue.
Contaminated, wet and laminated cardboard can be placed in a baler, but putting cardboard like this will lose its appeal to recyclers.
If in doubt, try to steer by these guidelines:
Maintain Consistency Although you can mix cardboard types and forms, recyclers will be much happier if a cardboard bale is mostly made of the same type of cardboard
Avoid Contamination Cardboard that has been in direct contact with any kind of food is considered contaminated and not suitable for recycling.
Don't mix materials Any cardboard with plastic components or features, decorative elements or laminated will devalue the bale