Box Plant Recycling Equipment: Balers and Shredders for Corrugated Trim and Scrap

By Hoosier Machinery Solutions – Wanatah, IN – July 13, 2026 – 8 min read

HMS sells new Balemaster balers and industrial shredders, refurbishes all major brands, and ties equipment into existing plant air systems. Call (219) 733-2108.

A box plant never stops making scrap. Every corrugator run, every converting line, every die cutter produces trim continuously. That trim is clean, high-value OCC, and the equipment that handles it determines whether it flows into mill-ready revenue or piles up as a bottleneck. HMS sells new Balemaster balers and industrial shredders, refurbishes machines from all major brands at our Wanatah, Indiana facility, and ties new and refurbished equipment into existing plant air systems.

What Makes Box Plant Recycling Different

In a box plant, scrap generation is continuous and tied directly to production. Corrugator trim, die cut scrap, slotter waste, and converting broke flow constantly – and most plants move trim from production equipment to the baler through an air conveyance system. That changes the equipment requirements: the baler must accept continuous feed with capacity headroom so a production surge does not back material into the air system; the baler must integrate with the air system discharge; and uptime is production-critical because when the baler goes down, trim has nowhere to go and converting lines can slow or stop. Box plant trim is some of the cleanest, most valuable OCC there is – consistent, dry, and uncontaminated.

The Balers Box Plants Run

Balemaster E-Series: the machine a large share of box plants run, across small, medium, and large plants. Built for continuous trim fed from an air conveyance system into a horizontal auto-tie baler producing dense 30-inch bales with an automatic tie cycle of roughly 25 seconds. Horsepower 20HP to 150HP. Model number encodes capacity – adding a zero gives cubic feet per hour of dry throughput, so an E-980 moves 9,800 cubic feet per hour. On corrugated, E-Series machines produce bale weights of roughly 1,100 to 1,700 pounds at densities of 25 to 32 pounds per cubic foot. For most box plants, the default answer.

Horizontal closed-door baler: small to medium box plants and sheet plants with lower trim volumes often run a closed-door baler. Solid mill-acceptable OCC bales at a lower price point than a full auto-tie system – the tradeoff is manual bale tying, manageable at lower volumes. Refurbished closed-door balers from HMS run $50,000 to $90,000.

Balemaster EO-Series: for plants that cannot mount the air system silo on the roof. In a typical layout, trim is conveyed to a silo or cyclone above the baler and metered down into the feed chute. Some buildings cannot support a rooftop silo – structural limits, lease restrictions, or layout constraints. In those plants, the EO-Series oversized charging chamber – up to 85 cubic feet with feed chutes up to 75 inches long – lets significantly more material accumulate in the chamber between cycles, absorbing surges from the air system without a large overhead buffer.

Tying the Baler Into Your Air System

Most box plants already have trim collection infrastructure – ductwork running from corrugator and converting equipment to a cyclone or silo that discharges toward the baler. HMS ties the new or refurbished baler into your existing air system. The baler’s hopper configuration and charging chamber are matched to the air system discharge so the machine receives a consistent head of material. Getting this interface right – discharge height, chute dimensions, chamber volume, surge capacity – is most of what separates a smooth box plant installation from a troublesome one. The baler and the air system perform as one system and need to be planned as one.

Where Shredders Fit in a Box Plant

Volume reduction before baling: corrugated sheets, cores, and bulky scrap do not always feed efficiently in whole form. A shredder reduces them into consistent pieces that convey and bale more densely – shredded corrugated packs tighter in the bale chamber, improving bale weight and freight economics.

Product destruction: box plants regularly need to destroy misprinted boxes, obsolete inventory, and branded packaging. A shredder provides verifiable on-site destruction – the material is reduced to shreds, then baled and sold as OCC. The plant protects its customers’ brands and still captures the commodity value.

The shredder-to-baler system: many box plants run a shredder with an air system discharge that feeds shredded material directly into the baler, alongside trim arriving from production lines. Scrap goes into the shredder, shreds convey pneumatically to the baler, and dense OCC bales come out. One continuous system handles trim, oversized scrap, and product destruction with minimal labor.

HMS sells three shredder configurations for box plant applications. Single shaft shredders: a rotor against a fixed anvil with a sizing screen controlling output piece size – right when consistent shred size matters, such as feeding an air conveyance system. Dual shaft shredders: two counter-rotating shafts that grab and shear material – high torque at low RPM, suited to bulky scrap, cores, and mixed corrugated waste. Corrugated/triple shaft shredders: purpose-built for corrugated, combining shearing shafts with sizing control for high-volume corrugated scrap and product destruction. HMS can supply the shredder and baler together as a turnkey system – sized to each other, integrated with your air system, installed and serviced by our own team.

What Box Plant Baling Equipment Costs

Horizontal closed-door or manual-tie: $100,000 to $180,000 new, $50,000 to $90,000 refurbished, for small to medium sheet plants with lower trim volume. Horizontal auto-tie E-Series: $185,000 to $300,000 new, $95,000 to $125,000 refurbished, for box plants of all sizes with air-fed trim. Horizontal auto-tie EO-Series: $185,000 to $300,000 new, $95,000 to $125,000 refurbished, for plants without rooftop silo capability and higher volumes. Industrial shredders are quoted per application – pricing varies with shaft configuration, throughput, and infeed and discharge integration. When a shredder and baler are purchased together as a turnkey system, the two are sized and quoted as a package. Financing available with approvals in as little as 24 hours. New equipment qualifies for Section 179 tax deduction.

Frequently Asked Questions

What baler is best for a box plant?

Most box plants of every size run a Balemaster E-Series horizontal auto-tie baler – built for continuous corrugated trim fed from an air conveyance system. Small to medium sheet plants sometimes run horizontal closed-door balers at lower volumes. Plants that cannot mount their air system silo on the roof often step up to the Balemaster EO-Series, whose wider charging chamber allows more material to accumulate between cycles.

How does a box plant baler connect to a trim collection air system?

Most box plants collect trim from converting equipment through an air conveyance system that discharges into the baler’s feed chute or hopper. HMS ties new and refurbished balers into a plant’s existing air system – the baler’s hopper configuration and charging chamber are matched to the air system discharge so the machine receives a consistent feed.

Why would a box plant need a shredder?

Two purposes: volume reduction – shredding corrugated trim and sheets before baling – and product destruction – securely destroying misprinted, obsolete, or branded boxes. Many box plants run a shredder with an air system discharge feeding shredded material directly into the baler. HMS sells single shaft, dual shaft, and corrugated/triple shaft shredders and can supply the shredder and baler as a turnkey system.

How much does a box plant baler cost?

New horizontal auto-tie balers range from $185,000 to $300,000. Refurbished horizontal auto-tie balers from HMS run $95,000 to $125,000. Refurbished horizontal closed-door and manual-tie balers run $50,000 to $90,000, with new units from $100,000 to $180,000.

Bottom Line

A box plant’s scrap stream is continuous, clean, and valuable – the equipment handling it should match. For most plants that means a Balemaster E-Series tied into the existing air system. For smaller sheet plants, a closed-door baler at a lower entry point. For plants that cannot put a silo on the roof, the EO-Series wider chamber solves the buffering problem. Where oversized scrap or product destruction is part of the picture, a shredder feeding the baler completes the system. HMS sells, installs, and services all of it and can quote the shredder and baler together as a turnkey package. Call (219) 733-2108. Hoosier Machinery Solutions, 9450 W. US Highway 30, Wanatah, IN 46390.