Cheap Cardboard shredder

[S R]

Increasing bureaucracy being what it is, I am having to solve the problem of dealing with cardboard waste but with very limited storage space. The waste collection company has stopped taking all the waste and now strictly only takes what is in the bin.

So, instead of taking calls and generating work for the staff, I am having to spend time ripping up the waste boxes so they fit into the bin. It just doesn't seem right in a business to have to spend time doing this.

I have looked for compactors but they all look expensive. So first question is does anyone know of any cheap compactors or shredders for cardboard. The other question is what are the thought of the panel on the idea of a DIY shredder - possibly made from an old electric lawn mower.

ng_786.

[Spamlet]

Leave it out in the rain, or spray with a garden hose. Unless it is plastic or wax coated it goes soft when wet and then is easy to squash into the bin.

Goats will eat them too...

S

[geoff]

In message , S R writes

Our Local council is making noises in the cardboard collection direction

Phone yours up and ask

[Andy Dingley]

The trick is to dismantle boxes, rather than shredding them. They're far weaker along the ready-made fold lines and will easily dismantle into flat sheets that stack pretty well in a dumpster. When I had to last deal with this problem in bulk:

• There's a box-cutting knife, one with a shrouded knife blade although it took a few goes to find one with a big enough jaw to take a thickness or two of heavy box cardboard. This is kept handy by the dumpster and isn't used or removed for any other jobs. You can't tear cardboard boxes as there's always some tape or something in the way. You can't use a Stanley knife or someone will manage to cut themselves before long.

• There's a cardboard dumpster. Nothing else goes in it, only cardboard goes in it, only flat cardboard goes in it. This then becomes pretty much self-compacting. Any unflattened boxes in there are taken out, flattened and put back.

• Cardboard is kept dry. Damp cardboard is weak and unpleasant to handle, so no-one then wants to tidy it up and it gets left.

Everyone needs to be aware of the first two and it becomes a hanging offence to breach them. You do need that segregated dumpster.

Shredders and compactors need power, which is where the money goes.

[Matty F]

My Council is happy to deliver several recycling bins if needed. Into these we can put a mixture of cardboard, paper, tins, glass and plastic bottles. Clearly they are able to sort out everything automatically. So the technogy is clearly now available, in first world countries!

[Rick Hughes]

Technology costs .... and the price for recycled cardboard prevents most people investing in the sorting Technology ....... I have a friend who owns a waste paper company, he only takes the cardboard as a sweetener to get the paper ... His resale cost of the cardboard does not even break even on collection cost.

I did some work with a logistics company, they invested in a machine that turns waste corrugated cardboard into packing material ... and very effective it is. Gets rid of most of the cardboard waste and also saves them on buying 'polystyrene peanuts' for packing.

The product comes out like an expanded mat ... here is a pic of typical machine:

[Andy Burns]

Seems to vary around the country here, some have myriad bins for different types of recycling, others just have one recycling bin.

But fill them to overflowing and they'll refuse to empty the contents and stick nasty warning stickers on them threatening to fine you if you repeat the "offence".

[T i m]

Ours (round the corner from yours) has recently taken to allowing a very (seemingly) mixed range of stuff in the big recycling bin. This includes (only shredded) paper, cardboard, cooked / uncooked fish, meats, bones etc, grass, hedge cuttings and fallen leaves, tea coffee etc. [1]

What do they do with that then, bio fuel / gas?

Paper, tin, glass, plastic bottles go in the other (smaller) bin.

Cheers, T i m

[1] They suggest you place all leftover food in an old cereal box or on some newspaper before putting in the big bin. We don't eat enough cereal and have a sign on the door saying 'no free papers' ... ;-( Having said that we don't waste much food either. ;-)

p.s. My missus remembers reading somewhere that they don't want the tin lids in with the tins (or plastic bottle tops)? She proved this by putting a couple in the box and they were left by the collectors? To save space I was considering cutting the bottom off the tins (as well) and then flattening them with my size 10 but then that would be the top /and/ the bottom they wouldn't take? It can't be because it's a different material and you wouldn't think it's because they have a sharp edge (some openers leave the tin with a sharper edge) so anyone know why please?

[Adam Aglionby]

Know somone in the wast...recyclable collection business.

He dosen`t have a yard, his vans go out empty and return empty, as he says he is not interested in rubbish , everything he collects is recycled and he gets paid to collect and paid for the materials he delivers to recyclers.

Offices are his best customers, lot of young staff not keen on land fill, give them different bins and they even self sort the plastics for him.

It`s all got a value if you have enough of it sorted;

food waste ,along with shredded paper which is too short fibre to recycle, could be for composting.

Dunno about tins of bottle tops though , have wondered myself.

Cheers Adam

[Tim Streater]

Different plastic for the lids?

[chris French]

It is composted. We can put in similar, though don't think cardboard.

Never heard of the tin lids thing, other than safety reason I can't think of a reason why. Bottle tops because they presumably it is a different plastic that isn't recycled yet , or can be of different types, some of which aren't but makes it difficult to identify?

We can only recycle types 1,2 and 3 here (PET, HDPE and PVC).

[chris French]

Depend son the council as to how they do it, ours all goes in one bin and is then taking to a sorting place, others it's more separate bins.

and this is for commercial collection, which isn't the same as for domestic waste.

[Spamlet]

Don't cut all the way round the top and bottom. Leave a few mm then fold the two ends inside the tin and flatten with them inside.

S

[T i m]

Not quite so easy with an electric opener.

Crafty. ;-)

However, I think it's not something that's going to be /that/ convenient to do, especially with said electric opener (and the Mrs needs that with her arthritic hands).

Maybe I could jam all the lids / bottoms in one tin and fold the top over but not sure how any automatic sorting machine would cope with that?

I guess we would have to really know why they don't want lids (assuming they don't) in case any solution we come up with doesn't do them any favours etc?

Cheers, T i m

[Spamlet]

I would imagine its just health and safety - though they all have to wear gloves, so it does sound silly. Our council (Luton) has not - as far as I've noticed - issued any edicts on cans other than the usual 'wash and squash'.

S

[Jim K]

around these parts no-one wants plastic bottle tops and definitely NOT on the bottles!!

My best guess is they sort them by blowing air into the bottles and? seeing how far they go? can't think of another automated process that would require "no lids on plastic bottles" ? anyone?

Here is the crux of all this recycling bizness - product marketeers will emblazon their products with "recyclable" but as we cyincs know all too well, it may well be *technically* recyclable but practically only in India by the subsistence souls that pick over the dump for a living....

*All* those plastics we use should be recyclable it's just so far the economics haven't been made to work yet.....

Cheers Jim K

[Andy Burns]

Whereas here, they recommend you remove the top, stand on the bottle to flatten it, then replace to top, so you can fit more bottles into the recycling bin.

[T i m]

Indeed, and with the tin openers that cut the lid off at the can the lid isn't sharp at all but the can is.

I think we have the wash but no mention of squash (although we do with the ally drink cans).

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Same here but that doesn't seem to have been taken on-board by a majority round here (as I walk down the road and see the clear recyclable bottle bags filled with un-flattened bottles with tops on).

I think it's because (as has been mentioned elsewhere) the top plastic is 'unwanted', and the bottle can't be so easily compressed (by them or us) with it on.

Yup. Maybe that would be an optional job for our prisoners? Might let them earn an extra few quid?

I guess it all comes down to cost or energy (cost). Like, I think it's less 'efficient' (overall) to re-use and deliver glass bottles than it is to dispose of self-collected plastic ones (that are then turned into fleeces and other plastic stuff).

Maybe, if they can't re-use plastic milk bottles we could. We could take our empties back to the supermarkets and re-fill them there. If we haven't cleaned them out properly that (should be) our problem. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Good point. I've just looked at one of our freshly crushed milk bottles and it's probably still 50% of it original volume.

Cheers, T i m