Simple Compactor Bales Up Used Plastic

Simple Compactor Bales Up Used Plastic BALE HANDLING Anybody with some wood and a front-end loader can bale up loose agricultural plastic Lynn Leavitt’s way The Ontario farmer compacts bale wrap grain bags and other plastic with his “Pac-it” bale wrap compactor “I’ve considered selling the plans but it’s so simple that I can’t patent it ” says Leavitt who sells Pac-its to farmers in his area The Pac-it consists of a wooden box with slats on the inside and a frame on the outside It is open on both ends and sized to fit over a standard wooden shipping pallet Leavitt uses a plunger attached to his front-end loader to compress plastic as it is added to the box The plunger is simply a wooden pallet sized to fit inside the interior of the box Once the box is full of compacted plastic the bale is tied off with the plunger pressing on it Tie bands can be placed inside the box before the plastic is inserted They also can be pulled over and under the completed bale with a rod Leavitt provides “Once the bale has been tied off the operator slips two 2 by 4’s through the slats of the box and over the plunger and lifts the box off the bale ” explains Leavitt While many areas in the U S have no market for used agricultural plastics Canada does Leavitt says the 900-lb bales can be stored transported and recycled He and others using his compactors are selling their bales to Tri-County Plastics a local recycler Owner Doug LeBlanc estimates that clean used bale wrap has a value of 4 to 6 cents per pound Leavitt estimates having about $400 in material costs for his compactor He sells them for $500 locally He notes that orders from outside his local area would also include shipping costs Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Lynn Leavitt 459 County Rd 11 Picton Ontario Canada K0K 2T0 ph 613 885-3226; upacagriservice@gmail com

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