When choosing the proper corrugated carton from an environmental standpoint selecting a properly sized carton can make a very big difference. Using post-consumer recycled content is another important consideration. But even cartons with high levels of post consumer content require energy and create pollution in their manufacture, so reducing the total amount of material used is an important consideration. Besides reducing carton size, another waste prevention strategy is to avoid purchasing cartons that are overly protective.

Recycling

Old corrugated containers are an excellent source of fibre for recycling. They can be compressed and baled for cost effective transport. The baled boxes are put in a hydropulper, which is a large vat of warm water for cleaning and processing. The pulp slurry is then used to make new paper and fiber products.

Mill and corrugator scrap, or broke, is the cleanest source for recycling. The high rates of post-consumer recycling reflect the efficiency of recycling mills to clean and process the incoming materials. Several technologies are available to sort, screen, filter, and chemically treat the recycled paper.

Many extraneous materials are readily removed. Twine, strapping, etc are removed from the hydropulper by a “ragger”. Metal straps and staples can be screened out or removed by a magnet. Film-backed pressure sensitive tape stays intact: the PSA adhesive and the backing are both removed together.

Materials which are more difficult to remove include wax coatings on corrugated boxes and “stickies”, soft rubbery particles which can clog the paper maker and contaminate the recycled paper. Stickies can originate from book bindings, hot melt adhesives, PSA adhesives from paper labels, laminating adhesives of reinforced gummed tapes, etc.

Recycling corrugated fiberboard helps countries without sustainable wood resources build a paper and packaging industry locally.