Baling, often spelled bailing, is the compression of sorted recyclable material into dense, strapped blocks called bales. A baling press squeezes loose plastic film, bottles or sacks into a fixed size and ties the block with wire or strap.
Loose plastic is mostly air, so baling is what makes it economical to move. A truck carries several times more baled material than loose material, and bales stack safely in a warehouse. Bales are also the trading unit of the recycling industry: they are graded by polymer, colour and contamination level, and that grade sets the price a recycler pays. Baling normally follows sortation at a collection centre or MRF.
CII Sustainable Plastic Packaging Awards 2026
Lucro took home the Excellence award for Incorporation of Recycled Content in both rigid and flexible packaging at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Sustainable Plastic Packaging Awards 2026:
Post-consumer plastic, back on the shelf as bottles and pouches. The jury noticed.
