What are jumbo bags?

Jumbo bags are also popular as FIBC(Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers) bags, super sacks bags or bulk bags. They are quite suitable for the transportation or shipping of bulk products such as dry or flowable food and pharmaceutical items. This is because they are durable, lasting and economical. Even it is the toughest weather and environmental conditions, they can still in good use status. Generally speaking, jumbo bags are produced from woven polypropylene fabric and they are safe and hygienic in nature. You can reuse them in multiple times. There are several type of jumbo bags and each of them are used for transporting different materials.

Most modern jumbo bags are made from virgin PP plastic, made into woven fabric, then shaped or sewn to form bags. Because they are made almost entirely of plastic, they are fully recyclable and reusable. Not only do they last through multiple uses and environmental wear, but the PP material can be processed again and again without losing much structural integrity.

How is the Jumbo bag recycled

Once the raw material from the bags used, you can recycle them by this process – recycling process includes several phases:

• Collection: As with most recycling processes, the first stage is the collection of recyclable materials. The most cost-effective and easiest method of submitting bulk bags is in compacted bales. There are three grades by which the bags should be organized — namely, Grade A, B and C. Grade A bags include those that are clean and all white, except for colored stitching and handles. Grade B is classified as bags that are noticeably dirty but still mostly white with a little coloring. Grade C is all of the excessively dirty or colorful bags.
• Sorting and cleaning: Since bulk totes serve a wide range of industries and uses, they need to be sorted into groups and thoroughly cleaned based on what they contained. Bulk bags are often used to hold materials that range from sand to fertilizer to hazardous chemicals, so proper cleaning is essential. During this phase, the recycling facility will also remove all zips and buttons.
• Shredding: Once they have been cleaned and prepped, the bags go through a jumbo bag shredder, reducing them to small pieces. This phase makes the rest of the processes more manageable.
• Separation: During this stage of the recycling process, machines separate the shredded bag material and sort it based on color, size, shape, melting point or light absorption. They also sort any impurities and contaminants out of the polymers.
• Compounding: The final phase of the process is compounding, where the polymers are recombined. Extruders melt down the ground-up material at a high temperature of 240 degrees Celsius, creating pellets or granules of the plastic. These pellets are used in new products, such as clothing and playground equipment. To strengthen the mix, recyclers add virgin PP, sometimes totaling up to 50% of the blend.

While it is a technical process, experienced and equipped recycling companies will be able to complete it with relative ease. Since PP plastics are safe to recycle and don’t lose their properties during the process, they can be repurposed for new products time and time again.

Why you need to shred jumbo bags?

Reusing and recycling the jumbo bags are both ideal and straightforward solutions when jumbo bags are close to the end of service life. If they are no longer to be safely reused, you can recycle the jumbo bags. Woven fabric is produced by virgin PP plastic and then shaped or sewn to form jumbo bags. Luckily, PP plastic materials can be processed again and again without losing much structural integrity. The typical recycling processes include collection, sorting and cleaning, shredding, separation and compounding. During whole jumbo bags recycling, size reduction is the important and necessary step to get final PP flakes. Once jumbo bags are cleaned, a shredder and even a combination of shredder and granulator will come to reduce bags into small manageable flakes. Extruders will melt down the flakes and create pellets for new product manufacturing.

Choose your right jumbo bags shredder from PROKATO

PROKATO shredders cover several type of size reduction machines for jumbo bags. Double shaft shredder are feasible to reduce jumbo bags into small pieces. The typical shredder is our SMBZ102 shredder. CONTACT US to get a quote for a jumbo bag shredder according to the number of bags for shredding in a day, we have Small – Medium and Large shredders for this application.