Manufacturing

Process waste is the most predictable waste stream there is. Predictable streams are the easiest ones to turn from a cost into a recovery.

The advantage

You already know what you generate.

Retail waste is whatever the trucks happened to bring. Manufacturing waste is a known output of a known process — same material, same volume, same hours, week after week.

That consistency makes equipment sizing far more reliable, and it makes recovered material more valuable. Clean, single-stream, uncontaminated scrap in consistent volumes is exactly what buyers pay best for.

It also means the equipment has to fit the line rather than sit beside it. Waste that is generated continuously at a fixed point is best handled continuously at that point.

Close view of the compressed layers of a finished bale
Typical streams

What tends to be recoverable.

Corrugated & paperboard

Inbound component packaging and outbound packaging offcuts. Usually the highest-volume, most straightforward stream.

Plastic film & stretch wrap

High volume, very low density, and often overlooked. Baling film has a disproportionate effect on container fill rate.

Rigid plastics & trim

Process trim and rejects, where separation is already part of the workflow.

Paper & print waste

Consistent, clean and readily accepted by recovered-paper buyers.

General process waste

What cannot be recovered still benefits from volume reduction before it is hauled.

Wet or organic process waste

Food and beverage manufacturing typically calls for a sealed self-contained unit rather than an open compactor.

Content to confirm before launch

Nichols to confirm which manufacturing sectors the company has installed experience in, whether specialty applications such as metals, textiles or hazardous-adjacent streams are within scope, and whether any named manufacturing customers may be published as references.

Consistent stream, consistent return.

Tell us what your process puts out and we can be specific quickly.