EQUIPMENT SPOTLIGHT | NOVEMBER 2024

by MARY M. THORNTON

By 2028, the North American recycled paper market is expected to exceed $6,367 million, per Business Market Insights. This market includes materials such as writing, newsprint and printing paper, containerboard and tissue. Containerboard dominates the market due to the increasing demand from various industries such as food & beverage, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics. Last year, Transparency Market Research projected that by 2035, the value of the global plastics industry is expected to reach $129 billion by 2035. This data illustrates the varying volumes of what may in part, require processing, in a wide variety of industry sources.

Marathon Equipment

For over 50 years, Marathon Equipment “has been a global leader in waste and recycling technology, delivering innovative solutions that help businesses and municipalities efficiently manage recycling operations while advancing sustainability objectives. Our balers are designed with advanced features to optimize performance and reduce operational costs. These precision-engineered components make Marathon’s balers among the most reliable and advanced in the industry,” explained Eric Monsen, vice president, sales and marketing. Marathon manufactures a wide range of high-performance baling equipment, including auto-tie and manual-tie balers, two-ram balers, vertical balers, compactors, and material recovery facility (MRF) systems. This diverse lineup enables Marathon to meet the needs of both small businesses and large recycling centers.

While Marathon is recognized for its cutting-edge baling and recycling equipment, Monsen commented that “one of our most exciting innovations is our Connected Baler technology. This revolutionary system transforms baler management for industries such as recycling and MRF facilities, retail, manufacturing, and educational institutions, eliminating blind spots in stationary baler management.” Connected Baler retrofits to existing equipment or integrates into new Marathon balers, providing real-time monitoring of bale weights, equipment status, and location. This data is seamlessly connected to the cloud, offering detailed reports and instant alerts via 3rd Eye’s intuitive interface. By delivering real-time insights and data, businesses can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and achieve sustainability goals. Users can also benefit from proactive maintenance scheduling, enhanced service planning, and comprehensive tracking of baled materials with labels that can be scanned. This solution enables companies to optimize recycling, recover more materials, and recognize revenue sooner. Whether managing small operations or high-volume recycling centers, Marathon offers flexible, scalable solutions tailored to meet each customer’s needs. From design and installation to ongoing support, Marathon ensures that its equipment maximizes productivity and efficiency, so that companies can focus on their core operations, while their recycling processes run efficiently in the background.

Maren Balers & Shredders Inc.

According to Todd Wondrow, president of Maren Engineering Corporation, “Maren has few peers in the horizontal baler industry that match our breadth of product. We build two ram balers – open end auto tie balers and closed door manual tie balers – in ranges ideal for a customer’s first step into horizontal baling, all the way to machines producing truckloads of bales per hour. Our baler expertise and product options allow us to help customers identify the right baler for their specific application. In contrast, other manufacturers may urge you to adapt your process to meet their narrow product offering. Our extensive product line is a valuable asset. So is our knowledge regarding large baling operations with distribution, manufacturing and recycling facilities, which require a myriad of baler sizes and configurations. As a member of the Komar family of companies, we’re also able to offer vertical balers, hydraulic and auger compactors and complete waste systems. We can support a customer with the entire infrastructure and life cycle of their business.”

“The future of horizontal balers hinges on efficiency – not just the type you’d expect, like how many tons are processed per hour or kilowatt hour. While that is an important factor, buyers are drawn to Maren horizontal balers the most, due to the impact Maren often has on a customer’s entire business process. One example could be the elimination of manual loading time for a vertical baler, by switching to a dump and run practice, which allows an operator to be redirected to work unrelated to recycling. Another example could involve a self-cleaning bale chamber and easy access design. This could eliminate weekly cleaning by maintenance staff that could instead perform other important facility operation tasks. Also, Maren assists buyers that may choose machine features like automatic weight scales and barcode printers. This could allow warehouse staff to move bales to a trailer without wasting time in transitioning to scales, or performing clerical tasks,” Wondrow stated. In conclusion, Wondrow believes the Maren/Komar team can help your business run better, not just make your baler run faster – and he invites those in the market for their services and products to give Maren a call.

Van Dyk Recycling Solutions

Van Dyk Recycling Solutions offers balers that process all types of paper, cardboard, aluminum and plastics and seamlessly switches between grades for the ultimate flexibility in baling. All models are strictly “no-shear” and are designed with a pre-press compression flap that condenses material into square bales that are evenly dense on all sides (making them easier to stack and store). Material preloads on top of the flap while the flap is in motion to keep the baler maintaining high speeds. Eliminating the act of shearing drastically reduces wear and tear on the machine and reduces maintenance costs.

The company offers high speed, high capacity, fully-automatic balers for recyclers and waste processors operating anywhere between 15 to 50 tons of material per hour. “Our customers are consistently impressed with the performance and reliability of our balers. ‘It just runs and runs,’ and ‘it gives us a sense of confidence every day’ are sentiments we often hear. We like to say the baler is the heart of any recycling operation, and ours keep hundreds of operations pumping, sometimes for decades! Our balers are known to last for ten, even twenty years with no signs of slowing down,” said Mark Neitzey, sales director.

He added, “Every baler is backed by our unmatched customer support plan, which includes exclusive access to our extensive parts warehouse and 24/7 technical assistance over the phone, at no extra charge. We keep all spare parts in stock in our Connecticut warehouse, so they are ready to ship the moment you need them. We also offer a new option for remote serviceability: Van Dyk Vision. Using augmented reality technology, our technicians can live stream footage of your plant and give directions in real time. It’s just like having an expert in your plant, in an instant.”