Holiday shoppers, Santa's helpers, moms and dads, good little girls and boys everywhere will find themselves surrounded by the remnants of an unwrapping extravaganza this December 25, as in all the years before. Box makers are hoping that in the aftermath of all that merriment, when stuffing the gift wrap into bags and toting empty boxes out to the garage, families will remember to set aside the corrugated for recycling.
Corrugated boxes are sturdy shipping containers, used to safely transport products to stores and homes year-round for over 100 years. Families doing more of their holiday shopping online means more corrugated boxes are coming into their homes than ever. The good news is those boxes are reusable, as storage and shipping containers, and easily recyclable. In fact, corrugated box manufacturers need the old corrugated containers to make new boxes.
Corrugated is easily identified by the wavy layer ("flutes") in the middle, between two sheets of paper (usually brown).
Many municipal recycling programs accept corrugated for recycling in their curbside and drop-off collections. They typically ask for residents to flatten the boxes before setting them out at the curb or tossing them into collection bins at drop-off centers.
According to the Fibre Box Association, more than 76 % of all corrugated produced in the U.S. last year was recovered for recycling, and most boxes contain some recycled fiber already. More than 77 percent of the nearly 25 million tons of old corrugated containers recovered in 2006 was used to make new corrugated or paperboard.
Source: American Forest & Paper Association
For more information about recycling corrugated, visit www.corrugated.org for collection details or drop-off locations in your area, call your local public works department.
