Plastic shredder

Typical plastic waste includes offcuts of edge banding, protective and packaging films, PP or PET strapping, plastic profiles, offcuts of acrylic glass and plastic sheets, and damaged plastic components. The type and quantity depend heavily on the range of services provided by the business.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to that. Individual GROSS recycling shredders can, in principle, process various materials such as wood, cardboard and plastic. However, for plastic waste that accumulates on a regular basis, GROSS offers the GAZK series, which is specifically designed for this purpose. The rotor, blades, drive, screen and discharge system must be suited to the specific material.

The key difference lies in the application-specific design. Wood waste, veneer, hard plastics, films and long strips behave differently during feeding and cutting. A plastic shredder is therefore tailored to the specific plastic in question in terms of the rotor, blade geometry, counter-blades, rotational speed, screen and discharge system.

Such thermoplastic edging materials are commonly used in furniture manufacturing. Whether specific edging offcuts can be reliably shredded using a particular machine and subsequently recycled must be assessed on the basis of the material, dimensions, coating, adhesive residues and the desired final particle size. Where possible, different types of plastic should be sorted separately to ensure high-quality recycling.

In principle, films and plastic strips can be shredded. However, due to their thinness, low tear resistance and tendency to become tangled, they require a suitable cutting configuration and material feed system. A machine designed for solid plastic parts is therefore not automatically the best choice for long strips or thin films.

Technically, a machine can process different materials depending on its design. However, mixing materials is often detrimental to recycling. Wood and plastics should therefore be collected and shredded separately wherever possible. Where the machine is used for different purposes, consideration must also be given to cleaning, residual material left in the machine and the waste management operator’s requirements.

No, coated chipboard is not a single-material plastic waste stream. It consists mainly of wood-based material and a coating or other composite components. Shredding and recycling must be coordinated with the relevant waste disposal operator and based on the specific quality of the boards.

Shredding can reduce the volume of material, facilitate internal handling and ensure a consistent feed for subsequent sorting or recycling processes. Whether this actually reduces transport or disposal costs depends on the quantity, material purity, particle size and the terms and conditions of the recycling partner.

Clean and single-type production residues generally offer better conditions for material recycling than mixed or contaminated waste. The shredder first produces pre-shredded material. Further steps such as sorting, cleaning, re-shredding or extrusion may be required to produce regranulate.

This depends less on the size of the business than on the type, quantity and frequency of the plastic waste. Where small quantities are generated sporadically, separate collection is often sufficient. In-house shredding becomes a more viable option when larger volumes are generated on a regular basis or when a recycler requires a specific particle size.