Waste management for manufacturing & logistics

In a busy warehouse or distribution centre, soft plastic waste arrives faster than most bins can deal with, and a few wrapped pallets are all it takes to fill a standard liner. Pallet shrink wrap, stretch film, and the lightweight packaging that protects every inbound shipment build up across the floor through every shift.

Shrink wrap traps air, so a bin that should hold a full shift of waste gets overwhelmed by mid-morning. Staff end up changing liners more often than they should, walking material across the floor to skip bins, navigating around overflow, and absorbing the small inefficiencies that compound across a working week. Liner consumption climbs, collection frequency climbs, and a portion of paid labour quietly shifts from picking and dispatch to housekeeping.

The Longopac continuous bagging system is gaining traction in manufacturing and logistics for exactly this reason. Instead of fitting a pre-sized liner into a wheelie bin and changing it whenever it fills or splits, the operator pulls out only the length of bag they need, seals it, and starts a new one from the same cassette.

The same unit handles pallet shrink wrap, stretch film, protective foam wrap, cardboard offcuts, and the general run of lightweight packaging waste generated in high-throughput sites. Because the bag is continuous, there is no wasted plastic at the top of a half-full liner and no oversized bag stretched across a small load, so liner consumption tracks much more closely to the actual volume of waste being produced.

This matters more in automated and semi-automated environments, where waste collection has to slot into a workflow that does not stop for it. Picking lines, conveyor systems, and robotic packing cells all produce waste at predictable points, and the bins that serve them need to be quick to change, simple to wheel out, and reliable enough that no one is interrupting a shift to sort out a torn liner. A continuous bagging station positioned near each generation point keeps the floor tidy and removes one of the steady frictions that build up across a large facility.

Clean pallet wrap and stretch film are recyclable through commercial soft plastic channels, but only if they are kept separate from food waste, dust, and general rubbish. A dedicated collection point with a continuous bag does that work naturally, because the system encourages operators to keep one stream uncontaminated rather than tossing soft plastics into whatever bin happens to be closest. For sites working towards landfill diversion targets or reporting against sustainability commitments, this is a low-effort change with measurable returns at the next waste audit.

Easi Recycling will be exhibiting at EMEX 2026, New Zealand's main trade event for manufacturing, engineering, and industrial technology. If you are looking for practical options for managing soft plastic, shrink wrap, and packaging waste in your operation, the team will be demonstrating the innovative Longopac system for warehouse floors and Unisort bins for front-of-house recycling. Read more about Easi Recycling's manufacturing and logistics solutions before the show.

For more information, call us on 0800 342 3177 or send us a quick email, and one of our friendly team members will help introduce a waste management plan that works for your site and budget.