a compacting apparatus for recyclable waste materials is particularly adapted to be mounted on a recycling collection vehicle to allow the additional collection of large volume recyclable containers , such as large plastic beverage bottles and the like . the compactor apparatus occupies a very small total volume , but provides a highly efficient compaction of the recyclable materials thereby allowing it to be added to existing vehicles without significantly increasing the overall size . the appartus utilizes a flow - through arrangement including an inlet hopper on one end of the housing and a serially connected payload chamber having an outlet on the opposite end of the housing . a hopper platen is rotatably mounted on one end of a slide panel for sequential rotary and linear movement to sweep uncompacted materials from the hopper and compact them into the payload chamber . a load ejection panel is rotatably mounted in the payload chamber to cooperate with the slide panel in one position to establish the front wall of the chamber and to rotate to a second position to eject the compacted mass through a rear door in the housing . the payload chamber has a unique forwardly divergent interior shape to help prevent reverse movement of compacted material from the payload chamber back into the hopper . the rear ejection door in the housing is preferably connected with a direct mechanical link to the load ejection panel so that the two operate in unison for load discharge , thereby eliminating the potential problem of the rear door inadvertently springing open under the pressure of the compacted material .