What Is A Plastic Shredder And How Does It Work?

Plastic shredder, also known as plastic crusher or plastic pulverizer, is a solid waste volume reduction mechanical equipment designed for plastic recycling. It is mainly used to tear waste plastic products (such as plastic bottles, pipes, films, etc.) into small pieces for subsequent recycling.

Plastic shredders reduce the volume of plastic waste by physical shredding, solving the pollution problem caused by the difficulty of plastic degradation. They are widely used in processing soft and hard plastics such as mineral water bottles, PET bottles, plastic barrels, home appliance shells, woven bags, tires, etc.

1.Material entry

The plastic material to be processed (such as PET bottles, plastic barrels, films, etc.) enters the shredder cavity through the feed port. Depending on the type of material, the size and shape of the feed port will be adapted.

2.Cutting and tearing

Blade system: The shredder is equipped with a moving blade and a fixed blade. The moving blade is usually installed on the rotating spindle, and the fixed blade is fixed inside the box. The moving blade and the fixed blade generate shear force through high-speed or low-speed rotation to tear large pieces of plastic into small pieces.

Double-axis design: With a double-axis structure, two sets of blades rotate relative to each other, further refining the material through squeezing and tearing, suitable for tough or large-volume plastics.

3.Crushing and compression

The material is crushed under the repeated action of the blades, and the discharge size is controlled by a screen or filter. Some models are equipped with a compression device to further reduce the volume of the material.

4.Discharge and recycling

The processed plastic fragments are discharged through the discharge port and can be directly used for recycled granulation or further processing. If processing plastics containing liquids (such as gasoline bottles), the filter will separate the residual liquid to achieve resource recycling

As a kind of equipment specially used for processing plastic waste, plastic shredder has become an important tool in the field of resource recycling and environmental protection due to its high efficiency and wide applicability.

1. Daily plastic products

Plastic shredders can process various types of common plastic waste in life, such as plastic bottles (such as mineral water bottles, PET bottles, motor oil bottles, gasoline bottles), plastic bags, plastic barrels, plastic films, plastic woven bags (including ton bags, space bags), etc. These materials are usually large in size or irregular in shape. After being processed by the shredder, they can be reduced in size and converted into uniform fragments, which are convenient for transportation and subsequent processing.

2. Industrial plastic waste

In industrial production, plastic shredders can process a variety of plastic scraps and waste:

Hard plastics: such as plastic sheets, pipes, pallets, hollow boards (such as PP hollow boards), large plastic parts (such as chemical barrels, large blue barrels), etc.
Soft plastics: including agricultural films, ground films, plastic films, fishing nets, plastic thin strips, etc., especially suitable for plastic materials in bundles or large rolls.
Machine head material and rubber head material: such as waste materials generated during the production process of injection molding machines or granulators (such as defective products from wire and cable factories, waste from toy factories).

3. Special plastic materials

Some plastic shredders can also process composite or high-density materials:

Plastics containing impurities: such as agricultural films with mud and sand, contaminated plastic products, which can be recycled by shredding and subsequent cleaning.
Mixed plastics: such as waste home appliance shells (plastic parts of TVs, washing machines, refrigerators), car bumpers, plastic toys, etc. These materials are often mixed with other materials (such as metals, rubbers) and need to be separated by shredding.