How Cardboard Boxes are Recycled

This holiday season, it is estimated that shipments of postal packages from online stores sold by e-commerce, as well as shipments from platforms such as Amazon or Ebay, will increase ten percent more than last year. That's many kilos of cardboard to protect those packages. But what happens to all that packaging once the shipment is delivered? Good question. Brown cardboard shipping boxes that most people know as " mailer boxes " are actually referred to as " corrugated cardboard " by recycling industry professionals. Once shipments are delivered or picked up at businesses and homes, the boxes are sent to a recycling warehouse . There they are classified and compacted. From this plant, the different types of cardboard go to a paper factory for recycling , where the product is introduced into a large blender with water to convert it from a solid material into a slurry. From there, the pulp is cleaned and any tape, glue or staples are removed. Workers then add a solution before putting it into a paper machine. From there it is generally converted back into corrugated. 93 percent of the corrugated material found in recycling bins can be recycled. Of that, about half is remade into corrugated and the other half is converted into other paper or shipped to international markets. Paper is one of the most easily recyclable materials, corrugated cardboard can be recycled five to seven times. Recyclers prefer cleaner boxes when they are recycled - where any Styrofoam or food is removed.