Cardboard is used as packaging material in every industry. Electronics, culinary supplies, shoes, lamps and even other cardboard boxes are all shipped and packaged in some variety of cardboard.
Cardboard Shredders – Shred-Tech
When cardboard packaging is no longer usable, it can be recycled, assuming it hasn’t been contaminated. At the beginning of the recycling process, the cardboard must be shredded so that it can be more easily processed. The shredded material is either recycled into new cardboard products or used as packaging material in shipping applications.
After the cardboard has been shredded, it is condensed and becomes much easier to handle and transport. In addition to recycling facilities that provide off-site shredding and prepare cardboard to form new products, other businesses like warehouses, shipping companies, packaging companies, restaurants, grocery stores and even some large offices can own on-site cardboard shredders. This reduces dumpster removal charges, and since the shredded material may be used for packaging delicate and breakable items, the need for purchasing packing materials is minimized.
Shredding is a popular option when it comes to used cardboard products because cardboard can be bulky and therefore difficult to cut by hand, and it takes up space even when it has been broken down and flattened. Shredding reduces cardboard’s size significantly, allowing it to be compressed into dense bales.
Cardboard is a paper product and features a layered construction, which gives it the sturdy properties necessary for handling heavy loads. During the construction process, a corrugated or wavy piece of cardboard is sandwiched between two flat, thicker pieces. They are then attached to each other by an adhesive. This thick, multilayered construction accounts for cardboard’s durability, which is desirable in packaging but difficult to dismantle when the packaging is no longer needed.
A cardboard shredder is designed to make these qualities irrelevant. Cardboard shredders are designed for cardboard only; they can shred paper, but the shredded pieces would be large enough that they would pose re-assembly risks, thereby negating their effectiveness as privacy safeguards. Depending on the size of the cardboard shredding operation, cardboard shredders are either hand-fed or completely automated.
Most produce strip cut shreds, while others provide cross cut shreds, which are cut both vertically and horizontally. Both cutting techniques are performed by sharp rotary blades that are able to destroy whole boxes with ease. The shreds are either baled and sent for recycling or used as packaging material.