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Recycling Corrugated Cardboard

OCC 11, Old Corrugated Containers

For many businesses you can no longer live by the theory of

"out of sight, out of mind - now you have to be Green."

Corrugated cardboard can be identified by its multi-layer construction and its brown color. The wavy middle layer  is what gives the cardboard its strength, while at the same time making it light in weight. Cardboard is inexpensive to produce and to date is the most efficient shipping container used to package and move materials securely.

Not all cardboard containers are recyclable. Some containers are coated or impregnated with wax or a chemical referred to as wet strength, which gives them the capability of being refrigerated. Vegetables and meats are shipped to grocery stores and restaurants in this type of container. Waxed corrugated is not recyclable with regular corrugated and should be discarded into the trash. In some areas carrier stock is also not recyclable. Carrier Stock cartons, (what soft drinks and beer come in), do not have a wax coating you can feel but you can refrigerate them without the cartons becoming soggy. Many paper mills do not allow carrier stock cartons to be included in any of the grades they accept because they will not break down to individual fibers in the pulpier when being processed in the re-manufacturing process.

Vegetable carton                       Chicken carton

To recycle a corrugated container you need to remove all contents including plastic bags and styrofoam. It is okay to leave tape, labels, and staples on the corrugated because paper mills have the capability of removing these items during the pulping process. The carton then needs to be flattened, so it will fit through the slot of the specialized corrugated container. Most all recycling companies now use slotted pad-locked containers because it cuts down on contamination of non-recyclable items being deposited into the container.

Also used gaylord containers are not always recyclable unless they have been through a hogger prior to baling. The material is good but Mills are always concerned about contaminates that the gaylords once held. Oil soaked gaylords with attached metal shavings will get the load rejected once the bales are noticed by the receiving dock. This is especially important to any mill whom is making paper for the food industry. Though mill cleaning systems take out over 99% of the unwanted metal shavings there is always a possibility that a piece of metal can slip through. Many processed food plants that use recycled fiber content paper to make their brightly colored boxes, (such as a cereal box), run a final grade check on outbound full packages of cereal by running them past a extremely sensitive metal detector. Anything that sets off the alarm is kicked off of the belt and is considered trash. The lab will then check if the carton had a fragment or the machinery that processes the various morning cereals added some metal while combining the ingredients of that particular cereal. If it is found out that the metal was imbedded in the carton the Food Processor immediately comes back on the Mill and puts them on notice for bad product.

Breaking the cartons down, allows you to put more into the container,

This means fewer trips to your facility, equaling lower service fees.

Boxboard or chipboard is often confused with cardboard because of its shared usage and similar general form. Besides not having the wavy middle layer, boxboard is usually grayish in color when you tear it and look at the inner layer. The cellulose fibers of kraft paper that make up the layers in a corrugated box are also longer making it stronger.  Boxboard is considered a lesser quality paper and should not be mixed with corrugated. Boxboard is recyclable, but if it is the primary material your business generates it needs to be kept separate because it has limited use.

Various types of chipboard

Depending on the volume that is produced, a vendor will supply containers that are serviced one time to several times per week by compactor trucks. For large generators such as distribution centers and factories who uncarton a lot of product balers might better fit your need.

In specialized hydraulic trailers co-mingled fiber in large quantities is shipped from cities and towns that operate drop-off and curbside recycling programs. This material has corrugated, boxboard, junk mail, office paper, newspaper, and magazines all grouped together.

Co-mingled fiber from a City curbside program, ready to be processed

Almost all paper mills use old cardboard as their feedstock when making new kraft paper, which is the component, used to make corrugated.  Midwest paper mills no longer have the capability of taking in virgin trees and converting them to pulp – they rely on recyclers to supply their needs.

Corrugated cardboard coming into processing

center from compactor route trucks

CORRUGATED RECYCLING FACTS

Facts about recycling 1 ton of corrugated cardboard

• Saves 17 trees from having to be cut down and used for pulp

• Saves 7000 gallons of water

• Cuts pollution 95%

• Saves 11 barrels – 462 gallons – of oil

• Saves more than 3 cubic yards of landfill space

•   Corrugated can be recycled an average of 7 times before the fibers become to short and

  they are filtered out as sludge during the pulping process. The sludge is then

  ready for disposal, but often has one more usage and

  that is as daily cover at landfills in place of soil.

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