A pressure roller for an apparatus for compaction of empty (disposable) hollow bodies (beverage containers), particularly plastic bottles or tin cans, having at least one rotating roller that is disposed at a distance from a counter-bearing, forming a gap, has an essentially cylindrical mantle surface that possesses multiple profiled partial regions of the same type and the same width in its working region, following one another in the axial direction. These profiled partial regions are separated from one another, in each instance, by a circumferential recess. Each of these profiled partial regions—viewed axially—has multiple sections that follow one another. At least one cam-shaped projection that projects radially away from the mantle surface is disposed in one of these sections.