Plastic Recycling Machine Cost, Machine by Machine

Read this before you compare

Where the Three Cost Questions Are Answered

Plastic recycling machine cost is decided one machine at a time. A shredder, a washing line and a pelletizer are priced by completely different things, and a quotation that lumps them into a single figure hides exactly the detail you need to compare it against anyone else’s.

Three different questions hide inside “how much does it cost”, and mixing them is why buyers compare numbers that were never the same kind of number.

01
What does a whole plant cost to build, layer by layer, and what will it consume per tonne once it runs
What adds up in plastic recycling plant cost
02
Which variables move the price of a complete line before anyone quotes anything
What a plastic recycling line is made of
03
What sets the price of this one machine, and whether the quotation in front of you includes it
You are here

We do not publish a price list, and the reason is set out on the line page rather than repeated here. What this page gives you instead is the parameter on each machine that actually moves the number, so you can read any quotation with it — including one that is not ours.

Machine by machine

What Moves the Price of Each Machine

Every figure below is the span across our own range. Where a machine sits inside that span is what your material and throughput decide, and that is the whole of the pricing conversation.

BKL twin-shaft shredder on its base frame, the machine priced by rotor diameter and installed power

Shredders

Price driven by: Rotor diameter × installed motor power
Range we build: ⌀300 mm / 15 kW × 2 → ⌀550 mm / 75 kW × 2 · 400–4,000 kg/h

Two numbers set the price: rotor diameter and installed motor power. Single-shaft machines add a hydraulic pusher, a separate 2.2 to 5.5 kW drive that is a line item in its own right.

Knife steel is where the counter-intuitive line sits. Moving from 9CrSi to D2 or tungsten carbide raises the quotation and lowers cost per tonne, because regrind intervals stretch. It is the one item on a shredder quotation where the more expensive option is usually the cheaper one. Single versus twin shaft changes what the machine can swallow, not how good it is — choosing by tier instead of by material is how people buy the wrong one.

Plastic shredder machine

Crusher rotor and knife rows, the parts that set output particle size on a plastic granulator

Crushers and Granulators

Price driven by: Chamber size × motor power
Range we build: 500 × 780 mm / 37 kW → 800 × 1,180 mm / 132 kW

Knife rows follow the material rather than the price tier. Ask for the screen aperture in writing, because it sets your output particle size and it is the item most often left off a quotation.

Screens are consumables, not fittings: ask how many are included and how often they are changed.

Plastic crusher and grinder

Plastic washing line with separation tank and conveyors, priced by how many wash stages the material needs

Washing Lines

Price driven by: Number of tanks · stainless grade · water recirculation
Range we build: Rigid line 100–250 kW · soft film line 110–600 kW

A washing line is priced by how many tanks your material needs, not by throughput alone. Pre-wash, friction, hot wash at 85 to 95 °C with 1 to 3% caustic, sink-float and rinse are separate stages, and clean factory scrap simply does not need all of them.

A separation tank alone runs 5 to 11 m long with 3 mm stainless on the wetted surfaces. What your material costs shows up in installed power.

Plastic recycling washing line

Squeezer screw and dewatering internals, the wear parts behind drying cost on a plastic recycling line

Dewatering and Drying

Price driven by: Rotor diameter · motor · whether a squeezer is needed at all
Range we build: Dryer Φ450–Φ850 / 5.5–110 kW · squeezer Φ250–380 mm screw / 75–250 kW

The selection rule matters more than the price: size for the wettest material you will ever run, not the average. A dryer chosen on the annual mean becomes the bottleneck in the rainy season, and by then the line around it is already built.

A squeezer is a different machine, not a bigger dryer — it presses and part-melts film before pelletizing. Film lines usually need both, rigid lines usually do not.

Plastic auxiliary equipment

Two-stage plastic pelletizing line, priced by screw diameter and how melt filtration is handled

Pelletizers

Price driven by: Screw diameter · single or two-stage · melt filtration
Range we build: ⌀85–⌀200 mm screw · compactor 300–1,500 litres

A manual screen changer, a hydraulic one and a continuous laser filter are three different prices and three different amounts of downtime per shift.

The clearest number on this page is the film penalty. At the same output, a film pelletizer with a compactor in front of it carries roughly 20 to 30% more installed power than a rigid-material machine, 205 kW against 175 kW at the bottom of each range. That difference is the compaction stage, and it is what dirty, low-bulk-density film costs you in equipment terms.

Plastic pelletizing machine

Make two quotations comparable

What a Quotation Does and Does Not Cover

Two quotations for the same capacity are not comparable until both answer the same eight questions. Send this list to every supplier you are talking to and ask for a line-by-line reply.

01 Conveyors, platforms and hoppers, in or out
02 Control cabinet: full PLC with interlocks, or a contactor group
03 Named brands for motors and electrical components
04 Spare knives and screens, and how many sets
05 Water treatment and recirculation, in or out
06 Packing method and the number of containers
07 The trade term the price is quoted on
08 Installation, commissioning and training, and whether travel is included

Match the scope first, then the price. A quotation that is cheaper on every line is usually not cheaper. It is a different specification wearing the same capacity label.

One machine, or all of it

Buying One Machine Versus Buying the Line

One machine into an existing line

It has to match three things at its boundaries: the feed rate ahead of it, the particle size it must deliver, and the moisture the next stage can accept. Miss any one and you buy twice. That is the most expensive mistake available in this category, and it is not visible on any quotation.

The line together

Costs more up front and less in total: one electrical design, one commissioning trip, one training session. Phasing is a legitimate choice, but leave headroom in the first phase — cabinet capacity, floor space, water and power — or phase two starts by rebuilding phase one.

Which machines a line actually needs is the place to work out the sequence, and where recycled flake and pellets are sold decides whether you need the extrusion stage at all.

Still in the price after delivery

What the Price Still Covers After Delivery

Three commitments sit behind the number, and they are worth reading as part of the price rather than as terms.

Witness the run You or your representative are invited to the plant to see the machine running before it ships.

Twelve month warranty Wear parts excluded. Technical support continues for the life of the line, not for the warranty period.

Parts at cost price Once the warranty ends, knives, screens and bearings are supplied at cost — a cost item, not a courtesy.

That last one is a cost item, not a courtesy. Knives, screens and bearings over five years add up to real money, and the gap between buying them at cost and buying them at market can exceed whatever you negotiated off the original price. How each machine is tested before shipment covers what witnessing actually involves.

What we need from you

The Four Things That Decide Your Quotation

For a figure that means something, four answers do most of the work. The full list of what to send, and what each item changes about the machine, is on the contact page. Tell us what you recycle and the reply comes back as a configuration list with installed power, footprint and manpower rather than a number with no specification attached.

01 Material and contamination What it is, and how dirty it arrives.
02 Throughput The kg/h you need to hold, not the peak on a brochure.
03 Flake or pellet Whether you stop at flake decides if the extrusion stage exists at all.
04 Site constraints Voltage, frequency and the floor area you actually have.

Before you compare quotations

Machine Cost FAQ

Five questions buyers ask once two quotations are side by side.

Holding two quotations already?

Send us both scopes with the prices removed. We will tell you plainly where they differ in specification, including where ours is the thinner one.

Ask for a scope comparison

Which machine in a recycling line costs the most?

Taken as a block, the washing section usually carries the largest share, because it is several machines rather than one. Taken as a single machine, the extrusion and pelletizing stage is normally the most expensive item on the quotation. Which one dominates your project depends on whether you stop at flake.

Does a bigger motor mean a better machine?

No. Installed power is a ceiling, not a quality rating, and a running line typically draws well below its nameplate because the motors are not all fully loaded at once. What matters is whether the rotor, the screw and the screen suit your material. An oversized motor on the wrong rotor still produces the wrong output.

Is a quotation EXW, FOB or CIF, and what changes between them?

The trade term decides where the seller’s responsibility stops. EXW ends at the factory gate, FOB at the port of loading, CIF at the destination port with freight and insurance included. Two quotations on different terms are not comparable, so establish the term before you compare the figures.

Is a second-hand plastic recycling machine worth considering?

It can be, and the trade-off is specific. What you save is the initial outlay. What you take on is wear you cannot see on the rotor, screw and bearings, plus the question of who supplies parts. If the original builder is reachable and the wear parts are still made, the case is much stronger.

Why do two suppliers quote different capacities for what looks like the same machine?

Because stated capacity depends on the bulk density and contamination of the material it was measured on. The same shredder rated on PET bottle flake and on baled agricultural film will show two different numbers, and neither is wrong. Always ask which material a capacity figure refers to.

Get a figure that means something

Send the four answers, get a configuration

We do not quote a number against a capacity alone. Tell us these and the reply comes back as a machine list with installed power and footprint against it.

01What you are recycling, and how dirty it arrives. Bulk density and contamination decide the machine before capacity does.
02The throughput you need to hold. Say whether you are selling flake or pellets — it decides if the extrusion stage exists at all.
03Voltage, frequency and floor area. An L-shaped bay is a design input, not a problem to discover later.

info@bkl-recycling.com +86 18852442182

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