A year or so ago, Custompac ventured into the market of corrugated cardboard and hasn't looked back since...

With new die-cutting machinery, box makers and printers, the infrastructure is in place to fulfil orders of every kind.

But with all the production, comes all the off-cuts! After utilising as much of the corrugated sheets as possible, the 'left-overs' had to be skipped. This was still collected and taken away to be recycled, but took up a LOT of space and involved regular call outs for recycling collections.

In the last few weeks however, Custompac's recycling has stepped up a level, with an investment in two new machines called 'balers'.... one for corrugated, one for polythene.

So how does it work? The material to be recycled is placed inside and crushed down by two powerful hydraulic 'rams'. These rams exert about 60 tonnes of force... put into context that's like being squashed by:

  • A large, adult Humpback Whale...

  • 2 Stonehenge Sarsen Stones...

  • Or an Airbus A220-300.

When the machines have compacted the material as much as possible, the final bales are tipped out. These blocks weigh around 0.5 tonnes. (While we're comparing, think a Grand Piano or Grizzly Bear!). These can then be stacked much more efficiently, before being sent for recycling.