Baler for plastic

[tomstractorsandtoys]

I need away to handle plastic wrap off round bales and silage bag plastic. I use about 200 wrapped bales and 4 200 ft long silage bags per
year. We use to just burn it but the wrap does not burn good and I just never liked the idea. Local township had a dumpster just for this that
was being recycled but the program no longer has any funds. The price of a dumpster looks way to expensive. I have an old Deere 14T square
baler and was thinking of removing the pickup, all the pto driveline parts and the knotters. I was thinking of putting a hydraulic cylinder to
run the plunger and mount a valve on the baler.Then turn it on its side so the opening is up. I was thinking that I could make some wooden
blocks with grooves Like the old hand tie balers. I think you could get good bit of plastic in a bale. I have room in the shed next to the
bales and figure after baled up it would not take up much room and also would not be blowing around. I could then look for a recycling place
or something else to do with it. Any reason why this would be a bad idea? The plunger opening might be a little small but I usually don't have
many big pieces. Tom

 

[Denny K]

This may sound really stupid but I grew up around an Allis Chalmers round baler. I often thought it would work well for scrap cardboard. Then burn the bales in an outdoor furnace to heat the house. The bales are wrapped very tight. We had some catch on fire once (long story) and they took a long time to finish burning. I don't remember my Dad having any trouble with the baler. The twine would keep the net wrap secure if needed.

 

[shaun wallace]

Around 35 years ago I took a JD 224WS with pickup off to bale cardboard with. Had to keep wire WELL oiled to keep from breaking. Could make 70 pound bales. Did try milk jugs and other plastic containers with limited results. For one thing was no market so still ended up in landfill.

 

[Wheat47]

I've seen where a recycler just left the baler alone and baled cardboard with it.
I would think that plastic would bale just as good. Plus, you'd have bales
you could handle with a loader or skidsteer.

 

[kcm.MN]

Forgive my ignorance as I'm not a farmer and have extremely limited knowledge of such types of plastic. That said, if you could make good, tight bales of plastic, why couldn't you use them? If you live in a windy area like we do, could use them to build wind breaks for cattle, or maybe even for susceptible vegetation. Maybe could use the bales to help make shelters for calving or for outdoor dogs or cats. Maybe use the bales to help make a storage shed. Basically using the plastic bales as though they were straw bales and you were using straw bale construction techniques. Just let your imagination think on it a while, and try to turn your problem into an asset.

 

[coonie minnie]

I've toyed with the idea of round baling the stuff.

 

[mtf]

I have what you need, a large hydraulic tobacco baler. There are several for sale here in burley tobacco country. They make a 600-700 pound bale of tobacco, so it would be a heavy bale of plastic.

 

[cjunrau]

I burn mine all in small amounts at a time in the woof stove to heat the shop. My brother burns it all through an out door boiler. There is a lot of heat in plastic if you ad it to a good amount of red coals and hot stove. Burns quit clean as well.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

Every time I think about the round baler I also think how miserable it is when net wrap wraps where it not supposed to. In my mind there is a picture of plastic wrapped on every roll and a pickup clear full as well. LOL Tom

 

[redforlife]

I could see a guy having problems burning it, if that was all you were burning. Perhaps you should try to burn it with other stuff. Brush pile, or small amounts in your household trash, or wood burning stove. Anything that you can kind of blend it with when burning.

Plastics sometimes can be about like burning books or magazines. One book or magazine thrown into a fire will burn really well. But a whole burning barrel full of books don't burn worth a dang. You can kind of have this same effect when burning plastics. Avoid burning nothing but and only plastics, is really the solution.

I'm not sure that I would dismantle a baler and try to set something up just to see if it would work. I'm actually thinking that it would be about as likely to not work (or not work good enough), than likely have something that worked when you got done. But, ... if you got a baler that you wont bale straw or hay with again, and you got some time on your hands, then go for it.

I remember one time somebody was going to use a trash compacter to smash aluminum cans in. Nothing but cans and only cans. It didn't turn out well. It smashed em all right. But you couldn't hardly get em out of there once they were smashed. Concept worked, but it was one of those deals that it really wasn't worth doing. More grief getting the smashed cans out of there than it was to just smash em some other way.

 

[spacechem]

I guess it might work- kinda like a log splitter? Load a charge by hand and then press it home? I first thought you imagined using it like an automatic baler- feeding in the plastic and letting the machinery work. I'm sure the plungerhead knife wouldn't cut the plastic but then I re-read your post.

Would it work? You'd be the first to know...

 

[caterpillar guy]

Back when we had bags 150x8 we cut the bottom along each side then the rest made pretty good bale covers when rolled up and unrolled over the hay. Tied the strings to the pallet then hung a tire on the other end of the sting. Used up old bale twine and the plastic. Been 20 years since the last bag and we have plenty of it around yet. Rolled and setting in places to use it. works pretty good to cover wood pile too.

 

[showcrop]

I don't think that you will find any place to recycle it. Until two or three years ago plastic wrap was being recycled but the big companies ruined it with their co-mingling programs. Co-mingling resulted in a lot a lot of garbage being included, and when it got to China it couldn't be separated so China, then Viet Nam, then indonesia refused to take it anymore. Now it is sitting in containers in seaports sucking up money.

 

[Centerplate]

https://www.revolutioncompany.com/why-revolution/collections-recycling/

We have a dumpster from this company to recycle silobag and bunker cover film. They will not take netwrap.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Once a year my county has a recycling day.
They put dumpsters at different places in the county. FREE.

It costs me less than $100 a month for a 2 yard dumpster picked up once a week. You can pack a lot of stuff in a 2 yard dumpster.

 

[MARK ROBKE]

I agree with mtf-a large tobacco baler would be the way to go. Mark.

 

[4xMF]

(quoted from post at 19:19:55 01/07/23) I've toyed with the idea of round baling the stuff.

Me too. I am going to try it next time I am baling hay. I will only make the bales big enough that i can unload them by hand at our recycling site.

This post was edited by 4xMF on 01/08/2023 at 02:10 pm.

 

[rockgrower]

There are some video's on YouTube of people bailing it with a round baler. I Haven't had the the nerve to try it. I doubt you will be able to find a recycler. If you can't find a use for the bales, probably be cheaper to just get a dumpster, but I would like to here how it works out.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Those of you willing to try, I wish you good luck. I know what happens when a little bit gets anywhere near a machine, and I just can't imagine consciously putting nothing but this plastic into a machine.