I looked at this many years ago and so can not help on the current commercial side. However things we thought about was the quantity of card that had to be kept dry as the recycling company would only collect certain amounts. This caused us issues for storage and we considered issues around fire (storage of that much dry cardboard). My recollection was that at the time the thing was unlikely to ever really pay for itself. But things may be different now. Chris

As stated depends upon the amount of card you are "disposing of" as to whether or not baler rental is cost effective. We do rent a baler from a recycling company and through it run both our cardboard and plastics. The collection firms can be quite accomodating taking both material streams on a single collection. Normal clean corrugated cartons in baled form £40-£60 per metric tonne, well sorted plastic wrap £60-£80 per metric tonne (depends on how close you are to the collection centre etc.). Based on revenue our baler is self funding - then there is the benefit of diversion from general waste / land fill currently taxed at £82 per metric tonne.

I'd look at buying one. Again, it depends on how much you produce. We are lucky as the company that we use is close by- and will collect 20 mill sized bales at a time. If we were to go elsewhere they want a full artic load. That would give us problems with storage. As for the rebate- it depends on quality and amount they collect. We sacrifice the tonnage rebate for the frequent collections. Currently at £45pmt. As for the plastic- ours is clear shrink-wrap that we get £250pmt for. Aside from the extra revenue we reduced our waste collections from 1 per week to 1 per month- a good saving on both transport and processing charge. Andy

Don't forget to fill in the form with the environment agency as either a producer of waste or the exemption certificate. Not sure if they did away with the exemption certificate though.