Cardboard Recycling near me

Two types of cardboard can be recycled so let’s have a look at what exactly these are and how to prepare them for recycling.

Corrugated Cardboard

This type of cardboard is thick and between two outer sheets has a layer of wavy board that makes the cardboard stronger and therefore suitable for packaging and shipping. Almost 81% of this type of cardboard has been recycled, whatever its original shape, colour or size.

Paperboard

Every time a piece of corrugated cardboard is recycled, the fibres that hold it together become a little bit shorter so that every time it is recycled, the cardboard becomes thinner until it becomes just too thin to be recycled into corrugated cardboard that is sufficiently strong. However, these fibres can still be used to produce paperboard which is a type of cardboard most commonly used for shoe boxes, cereal boxes and cake/biscuit mix boxes and other baking ingredients such as semolina and icing sugar.

Preparing Cardboard for Recycling

Before you put your waste cardboard in a recycling bin or take it to your local recycling centre, make sure it is completely empty by removing any foam, polystyrene or plastic that was used for packaging. You don’t have to remove any staples, glue, tape or labels as the recycling process will remove all of these automatically.
Don’t forget that empty kitchen towel and toilet rolls can be recycled as can egg boxes but separate out any cardboard that has grease stains, such as pizza boxes, as these can’t be recycled. The next step is to break the boxes down so that they lie flat although obviously for stronger cardboard you might need to use scissors or a cutting blade. Now separate the corrugated cardboard from the paperboard but if any of this has a plastic or wax lining, keep this separate too as the recycling process is different for this type of material.

Why Recycle Cardboard?

A lot of cardboard boxes are produced from 100% of recycled material and others can be made up of much as 80 to 90% which is important in view of these alarming facts:

• In America, an average person uses cardboard and paper products that are equivalent to cutting down seven trees
• The average house move involves using boxes equal to over half of a one ton pine tree

However, ensuring that you recycle cardboard means that:

• For each ton of cardboard that is recycled, 1.1 barrels of oil are saved
• 25% less energy is used in making boxes out of recycled cardboard compared to making boxes from new material

Other Benefits of Recycling Cardboard 

Reducing landfill

Recycling cardboard means that the amount of waste that is sent to landfill can be significantly reduced which is important because these sites are very harmful to the
environment due to the water and air pollution they cause.

Reducing greenhouse gases

Recycling cardboard and therefore sending less to landfill means that lower amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted from these sites. This is because, as it breaks down, cardboard releases methane, a greenhouse gas that can cause serious damage to the climate.

Creating job opportunities

The recycling process is a fairly intensive one involving many different activities such as collecting, sorting and processing as well as admin, logistics and sales. This means that the more we recycle, the more jobs will be created which leads to a stable and growing economy.

That’s the Why, Here’s the How

Most recycling centres will happily accept all types of cardboard and paper and some supermarket chains provide cardboard recycling facilities. For example, Sainsbury’s have this provision in 275 of their store’s car parks and local councils have provided another 100 such facilities at Sainsbury’s car parks. You can check if your local Sainsbury’s offers this facility by visiting their website and using the Store Locator option.

Other websites you can visit to locate a recycling centre close to you are https://www.recyclenow.com and https://www.recycle-more.co.uk which will also detail what
you can and can’t take for recycling. Businesses that produce a lot of cardboard waste should get in touch with companies such as Ecogen who provide a cardboard collection service and Plastic Expert who offer an eco-friendly waste management service for cardboard and paper waste. The easiest way to find waste couriers is by registering with The Green Alchemist. You can then find waste couriers quickly and easily that are interested in your waste on a local and national level. You will also be able to:

Discover if your cardboard and paper is valuable and the going rate you can expect for it.
Get the full contact details of the waste courier straight away.
Sort your waste by the type of paper and cardboard you have.

Wait for your waste courier to collect it
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