Body in the bales: Te Awamutu father-of-three Daniel Bindner was reported missing 24 hours before grisly find

The body found in cardboard bales has been identified as Te Awamutu father-of-three Daniel Bindner.

Police today revealed the 40-year-old unemployed man had been reported missing on Monday less than 24 hours before his crushed and dismembered body was found nearly 30 km away in a recycling factory in Hamilton.

Police released the last known footage of the dead man showing him standing outside the Te Awamutu McDonald's on Sloane St on June 21.

He was not reported missing until six days later.

Police were now investigating if Mr Bindner had been picked up by a recycling truck in the small Waikato town.

"We believe it was possible that Mr Bindner was picked up in a recycling truck and delivered to Oji Fibre Solutions in Hamilton," said Detective Inspector Hywel Jones.

Waikato Police were appealing to the public for any last known sightings of Mr Bindner who they described as European, of medium build and 176cm tall.

They believed Mr Bindner was sleeping rough in the area in the days leading up to his final sightings.

"Today we're following numerous lines of inquiry, focusing on the Te Awamutu area, as our investigation continues into the circumstances of Mr Bindner's unexplained death. This includes establishing his final movements," said Mr Jones.

"The last recorded sighting we have of Mr Binder was at 11.04pm on Tuesday, June 21st, leaving McDonald's restaurant in Sloane St, Te Awamutu.

"From that point on we are trying to establish what his movements were in the Te Awamutu area."

Mr Jones said yesterday's post mortem examination of Mr Bindner proved inconclusive.

"We are now awaiting further testing to help determine the exact cause of his death," said Mr Jones.

They had not ruled out foul play saying they were treating it as an "unexplained death".

Mr Jones said the dead man was known to police but it was not for any significant crime.

At the time of his death he was estranged from his partner.

He was a father of three young children aged 16, 7 and 5.

He was wearing brown work boots, blue jeans, a dark jacket, a dark long-sleeved hooded sweatshirt, a dark beanie hat and carrying a black shoulder bag.

In the weeks before his body was found in a cardboard bale, Mr Bindner was working on farms in the Te Awamutu region and his relationship had just ended.

Federated Farmers Dairy Industry Group National Chairman Andrew Hoggard said Mr Bindner had been working on dairy farms in the region.

"He had been working on a farm and his marriage had just come to pieces and he had just been made redundant, and then this happened."

Mr Hoggard did not know the man personally, but said it was a shocking incident.

Dectective Jones said the scene examination at the factory had been completed.

A blessing was held this morning at the Pukeko St site before workers returned.

Oji Fibre Solutions' chief executive Dr Jon Ryder said the body has been isolated to one bale which was due to be removed from the site by police today.

"Because of our ability to track our product, we have been able to identify when the material in which the body was found arrived at our Hamilton site," Mr Ryder said. "We also know when any surrounding product was recycled and we are confident that we have tracked and isolated every piece of recycled material and processed paper from that time."

Dr Ryder said that given the unprecedented circumstances the company has taken extremely rigorous steps to identify and safeguard the entire product that had been on the Hamilton site to ensure there was no contamination of any downstream product.

Material would be held at the Kinleith site for police evidentiary purposes.

Mr Ryder said the company had provided counselling and ongoing support for employees to make sure they felt confident returning to work.

"It is a very distressing time for all of us and we are also very concerned to respect the deceased. Our sympathies are extended to his family and loved ones."

The tragedy comes just six months after an Hamilton bar worker had a narrow escape when he fell asleep on cardboard in a skip after a late night out drinking.

The part-time kitchen hand woke up and banged on the truck alerting the driver.

Waipa District Councillor for Te Awamutu, Marcus Gower, said the whole community was hurting following Mr Bindner's death, that came after four people were killed in a horror car crash last week.

"People are concerned with the spate of things happening with the car crash...and now we have this.

"Everyone is feeling a bit down and it's affected everybody in Te Awamutu. Everybody is hurting and thinking about the family members and his poor kids that have been left without a father.

"If you talk to anyone they are all going to be touched in some way by it, it's so sad."