Baling Mixed Materials in a V-Press: Shrink Film, PET, Cans and Paper

A vertical baler is a compaction machine, not a cardboard machine, and the same press that handles your cartons will bale shrink film, PET bottles, aluminium cans and paper perfectly well. The one rule that governs whether any of it is worth money is simple: bale one material at a time. A clean single-material bale is a commodity with a market price. A mixed bale is waste that someone has to sort, and it is usually priced accordingly or refused outright.

The short answer

• One material per bale. Always. This is the single decision that determines value.
• Cardboard — the baseline. Bales well, stores well, has a reliable market.
• Shrink film — bales well and is worth real money when clean and colour-sorted.
• PET bottles — bale well once emptied; caps and labels affect the grade.
• Aluminium cans — the highest value per tonne by a wide margin.
• Paper — grade matters; office white is worth considerably more than mixed.

Material by material

Shrink and stretch film

Clear LDPE film from pallet wrap and shrink packs has a genuine market when clean, dry and free of tape, labels and product residue. Keep clear film separate from coloured film; the two are graded differently and mixing them drops the whole bale to the lower grade.

Film is light and bulky, so it bales to a lower weight than cardboard for the same chamber. Expect bales to take longer to fill and to weigh less. Store under cover — wet film attracts dirt and loses grade quickly.

PET bottles

Empty and drained before baling. Residual liquid makes bales heavy, messy and prone to going sour in storage. Caps and labels are tolerated by many reprocessors but affect the grade, so check what your buyer wants before deciding whether to remove them.

PET bottles spring back more than other materials, so bales need adequate wire tension and benefit from more ties. Clear PET is worth more than coloured — separate if your volume justifies the handling.

Aluminium cans

By far the highest value per tonne. Cans crush readily and bale densely. The two things that matter are keeping steel cans out, because a magnet at the reprocessor will downgrade a contaminated bale, and keeping the bales dry.

Because the value is high, aluminium bales are also the ones worth securing. Store them where they are supervised.

Paper

Grade is everything. Sorted office white paper is worth substantially more than mixed paper, which in turn is worth more than contaminated paper. If you already shred confidential paper, that output can be baled — see shred consoles and bins and the shredder-baler combinations built for exactly this.

Keep paper absolutely dry. Wet paper bales are heavy, go mouldy and are frequently rejected.

Practical operating points

• Wire tension and tie count vary by material. Springy materials such as PET and film need more. Use the correct gauge — see baling wire and wire and strapping selection.
• Clean the chamber between materials. Film residue in a cardboard bale, or cardboard dust in a film bale, is exactly the contamination that costs you the grade.
• Label your storage positions, not the bales. Marking where each material is stored prevents mixed pallets at collection.
• Keep everything dry. Every material in this list loses value when wet.
• Weigh your bales if you can. Knowing bale weight by material is what lets you check the settlement against the ticket.

When one baler is not enough

A single machine handles several materials fine where volumes are modest, because you simply run them in separate batches. The limit arrives when batch switching costs more time than it saves, or when you generate enough of two materials that neither can wait.

At that point the options are a second machine, a larger machine run in longer campaigns, or a horizontal baler if one stream is genuinely high volume — see vertical vs horizontal vs compactor. Where plastic bottles are the main stream, a PET crusher ahead of the baler improves density considerably.

Talk to your buyer first

Before committing to baling a new material, ask whoever collects it three questions: what grade do they want, what bale size and weight can they handle, and what contamination will downgrade or reject a load. The answers frequently change how you set the operation up, and they are far cheaper to obtain before the first bale than after a rejected collection. Selling cardboard bales covers how the pricing conversation usually goes.

Frequently asked questions

Can I bale different materials in the same baler?

Yes, but in separate batches producing separate bales. Mixing materials in one bale destroys its value, because the buyer has to sort it. Clean the chamber between materials to avoid cross-contamination.

Which baled material is worth the most?

Aluminium cans, by a wide margin per tonne, provided steel cans are kept out. Clean clear shrink film also carries a good price. Cardboard is the steadiest and most reliably collected.

Do I need to remove caps and labels from PET bottles?

It depends on your buyer. Many reprocessors accept caps and labels but grade the bale accordingly. Ask what they want before setting up a process, because removing them is labour you may not need to spend.

Why do my plastic bales come apart?

Springy materials such as PET and film push back against the wire after ejection. Increase wire tension, add ties, and make sure you are using the correct wire gauge for the material rather than the one you use for cardboard.

Can I bale shredded paper?

Yes, and it is a common pairing with in-house shredding. Keep it dry and keep it separate from other paper grades. Shredder-baler combination machines are built specifically for this workflow.

Baling more than cardboard

HSM Machines supplies V-Press vertical balers, crusher-baler combinations, PET crushers and baling wire across the US. Tell us which materials you generate and roughly how much of each and we will tell you whether one machine covers it or whether you are better served by two.