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What Happens to Used Stretch Film? LDPE Recycling Explained

Used pallet wrap is one of the cleanest plastic streams a warehouse produces. Most of it still goes to landfill anyway.

Houston Stretch Wrappers · Insights

Published October 16, 2026

The takeaway

Stretch film is LDPE, a plastic recyclers want, and warehouse film is usually clean and sorted by default because it never touches food or chemicals. The barrier isn't the material, it's collection. Keep film separated from general trash at the source and most haulers or film recyclers can take it from there.

Every pallet that leaves a dock sheds its wrap somewhere, either back at your facility if it's returned packaging, or at the receiving end. The film itself is low-density polyethylene, the same resin family as shopping bags and shrink wrap, and it's one of the more valuable plastic scrap streams because it's usually a single material with no food contact and minimal contamination.

Why so much of it still ends up in the dumpster

The problem is almost never that LDPE can't be recycled. It's that stretch film is thin, bulky, and easy to toss in with general waste once it's cut off a load. Mixed into a compactor with cardboard, strapping, and debris, it's no longer a clean stream, and recyclers won't take contaminated loads. The fix has to happen at the dock: a dedicated bin or bag for film only, before it ever reaches general waste.

What a basic film recycling setup looks like

  • A separate collection point at each wrap station, clearly marked film-only.
  • Keep it dry. Wet or oily film is one of the most common reasons a load gets rejected.
  • Above roughly a few hundred pounds a month, a small baler or film compactor makes pickup economical and some haulers will rent or subsidize one.
  • Below that volume, ask your waste hauler or a local film recycler about bagged collection, many will still take it on a set pickup schedule.

Recycled content film is a real option, not a downgrade

Film manufacturers now sell blends with 20 to 50% post-consumer or post-industrial recycled resin that perform close to virgin film on hold and puncture resistance, sometimes at a slightly higher gauge to match the same containment force. For operations responding to EPR packaging reporting requirements, switching part of your film spec to recycled content is one of the more straightforward moves available, alongside reducing film use per pallet in the first place.

If your facility already separates cardboard for recycling, adding a film stream is a smaller step than it looks, mostly a bin, a bag supply, and a pickup agreement.

Answers

Common questions

Can all stretch film be recycled?
Clean LDPE stretch film can be recycled through film-grade recyclers. Film that's wet, heavily contaminated with debris, or mixed with other plastics is harder to place and often gets rejected.
Does recycled stretch film cost more than new?
Recycled-content film is usually priced close to virgin film and sometimes less, though it can require a slightly higher gauge to match the same containment force.
Is baling used film worth it for a small operation?
Below a few hundred pounds a month it's rarely worth a dedicated baler. Many recyclers and waste haulers will still collect loose film in dedicated bags above a minimum volume.