Why are Bale Ties and Baling Wire Essential?
As a good majority of people in the work force are either working from home, or even worse, being laid off because of precautions put in place to fight Covid-19 I am forced to ask myself “why am I still hard at work?” What about a bale tie or baler wire is so essential that we need it maintain a sense of life as we know it and fight the hardships caused by the ongoing quarantine. Bale ties, baler wire, or any other wire used to hold together compacted waste created by our society and economic routine is much more important than we realize.
First, let us cover the basics. Waste materials at any scale are typically either disposed of in a trash can and sent to the local landfill or Incinerator or they are sent to a facility to get sorted and grouped together to then be resold. When waste goes to the landfill or incinerator that waste has finished its lifecycle and will either be burnt for energy or be covered by more waste and dirt to break down organically. However, if waste is sent to a sorting facility and compacted together into bales it can be resold for a profit. This is where the bale tie or wire tie comes into play. Bale ties and/or wire ties are used to secure the bales safely and neatly so they can be sold and transported to another company which will result in that material being reused. In a nut shell bale ties and baling wire allows for recycling to take place in a clean and efficient manner.
Now that we have that covered lets ask the question why is recycling so essential right now given everything that is going on? For one, I think we would agree that recycling is always important. The more waste we are able to reprocess and reuse the better for the environment, the healthier the environment the more we can enjoy it. Right now though during the spread of this virus recycled materials are used to make some of the most sought after products used and consumed. Bale ties and baller wire are often at the start and the end of that loop.
An example of this loop would be plastic bottles. Plastic bottles are discarded as waste in the recycling bin. That bin is collected and sent to a processing center to get sorted and aggregated into similar types or grades of plastic. Once enough material of the same grade of plastic is collected the material is put into a baler. The baler compacts the material, in this case plastic bottles, into a large cubed mass called a bale. While compacted this bale is secured with either a bale tie or some type of baling wire where it can be neatly stacked and stored until enough material is processed to fill a truck. Once the processing facility has a trailer full of material they are able to sell these baled plastic bottles to either a plastics processing facility or a manufacturer that is able to in turn use the raw plastic material to produce another type of plastic bottle and fill it with hand sanitizer. Once used the bottle from the sanitizer is processed as waste and the cycle begins all over again.
This process is true of many of the products that are cleared off the shelves in times of social distress and worry. Some other products the bale tie and baler wire help get to your store shelves are: toilet paper, paper towel, bottled water, cleaners and sanitizers, various types of boxes and packaging, and even plastic gloves and masks. The truth is thousands of people working in hundreds of different industries and sectors ARE essential and contribute to manufacturing a product like a bale tie or improving a process that truly is necessary to the economy and sustaining life as we know it. Midwest Bale Ties salutes all those working through these tough times as well as those quarantined in their homes. Together we can and will get through these trying times.