Bulk bags for plastics recycling

Under the granulator

Recycling lines fill bulk bags at the end of a granulator, a wash line or a pelletizer. Flake and regrind blow or drop into a bag hung from a frame, often with an open or duffle top so the pipe can sit inside. Flake is light and fluffy next to sand or ore, so recyclers use tall bags, 60 to 72 in or more, to get a useful weight into each one.

Long loops let the bag hang under a cyclone or a granulator outlet without a custom frame, and a document pouch holds the lot tag that tells the extruder operator what is inside.

Feeding extruders and outbound buyers

Reprocessors feed extruders from a bag frame over a hopper, or with a vacuum loader wand dropped through the top. Flake does not flow as freely as pellets, so discharge spouts on recycling bags are often wider, or the bag is simply cut open over a bin.

Outbound bags of reprocessed pellet go to molders and compounders, who judge them as they would a prime resin bag: clean, square and free of stray material. Those bags are a different spec from the shuttles that move flake around the plant.

Fines, wet flake and stray polymer

Granulators make fines, and fines make dust and static. Most flake runs in Type A bags, but where flammable vapour or dust may be present a Type A bag is the wrong pick. Type B suits dry dust with no flammable vapour or gas around, Type C must be grounded at fill and discharge, and Type D needs no ground; your site's hazardous-area assessment and the maker's documents decide which.

Washed flake bagged wet drips, can freeze or mildew in storage, and adds weight the label did not plan for. Let it dry first. Stray polymer is the recycler's contamination problem: a shuttle that carried PP regrind should not then carry PET flake, or the next lot fails its spec.

Feedstock, packaging choices and the shuttle count

Recyclers run steady when feedstock is steady, and feedstock follows collection. States with container deposit laws, including California, Michigan, New York and Oregon, collect bottles separately from curbside mix, which gives reclaimers a cleaner supply. Demand for recycled resin follows the brands that use it, and it can rise or fall with the price of virgin resin.

Because shuttles go round, a recycler's bag count is set by how many bags are in the loop at once, plus the bags that leave with outbound product. Track the bags that fail inspection and replace them before the loop runs short. Worn-out shuttles are polypropylene too; instead of landfill, they can ride back with a recycling pickup booked alongside the next delivery.

Recyclers move material three ways: compressed bales, corrugated gaylord boxes and bulk bags. Bales suit loose bottles and film on the way in. Gaylords stack well but soak up water and break down after a few trips. Bulk bags fold flat when empty, shrug off rain better than cardboard, and a 6:1 bag survives far more round trips than a box, which is why many plants use them on the flake side.

Labeling matters in a mixed plant. Colored bags, printed panels or a tag in the document pouch tell a forklift driver at a glance whether a bag holds clear PET, green PET or natural HDPE. Sorting mistakes are expensive at the extruder, and a stripe of colored fabric prevents a lot of them.

Post-industrial scrap, the trim, sprues, runners and rejected parts from molders, is a separate stream. Molders sometimes want to send it back in the bags their resin arrived in, but most of those are 5:1 single-trip bags; a set of 6:1 shuttles kept only for scrap is the better plan.

Ordering bags for a recycling plant

Tell us the polymer and form, the weight per bag and the height your granulator and frames allow. Say which bags stay in the plant as 6:1 shuttles and which leave with product, and whether any outbound material goes into food-contact use. Add the plant ZIP and how many bags are in your loop, and we'll quote both kinds in one load.

Where we ship plastics recycling bags most

• California
• Michigan
• New York
• Oregon