Uses for cardboard boxes
Fri 27 Jan 2012
There are many ways to recycle and reuse cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes. Millions of tons of cardboard is manufactured and used each year, and cardboard boxes are used as packaging and protection of a wide range of goods from new refrigerators to drinks cartons. Recycling this amount of cardboard can be problematic, but there are many ingenious ways to reuse every type of cardboard box from bespoke boxes which can be used once and thrown away, to house moving boxes which are more robust and may be easier to reuse for archiving and storing.
Cardboard boxes can be recycled in the garden by cutting them up and putting them under the mulch. This will discourage weeds and will eventually disintegrate and be absorbed into the ground providing more food for worms! Be careful to remove labels from the cardboard boxes though, and do not use too many in the same place, especially if there is a lot of ink on them, as this is not environmentally friendly.
Very effective solar cookers can be made from cardboard boxes by lining them with reflective material such as tin foil. These are widely used in Africa, India and China. Making a solar cooker from a heavy duty cardboard box is a cost effective way of cooking without using electricity while recycling waste cardboard.
Making fun things for the kids to do is a great way to recycle your cardboard boxes while teaching them something new. Kids love cardboard boxes and will play with them for hours. They often love to play with the packaging more than the contents.
If you have finished with your house moving boxes and do not want to store them, you can offer them to a local school or crafts organisation for them to use in projects, or just for storage.
Recycling and reusing cardboard boxes is very environmentally friendly, with less materials going to the landfill site. Cardboard boxes are available in all shapes and sizes and can be flat packed for easy storage. Large organisations which use a lot of cardboard boxes, such as supermarkets, can make them into bales and get them collected by a specialist waste management company. This is big business and contributes to a more sustainable environment. The company can create a new income stream from used cardboard boxes as waste management companies will pay per tonne for materials collected. Individual domestic households can help as well. Products made from cardboard can be disposed of through curb side recycling schemes offered by local councils, and include everything from cereal boxes to larger cardboard storage boxes.
Cardboard boxes and cardboard products are very versatile and cost effective to manufacture making them a highly sought after commodity. However, they must be disposed of responsibly or put to some other use once the original use has been fulfilled. As environmental concern is high on the agenda nowadays, it is essential that we send as little to the landfill sites as possible, including seemingly innocuous cardboard boxes.
Cardboard boxes can be recycled in the garden by cutting them up and putting them under the mulch. This will discourage weeds and will eventually disintegrate and be absorbed into the ground providing more food for worms! Be careful to remove labels from the cardboard boxes though, and do not use too many in the same place, especially if there is a lot of ink on them, as this is not environmentally friendly.
Very effective solar cookers can be made from cardboard boxes by lining them with reflective material such as tin foil. These are widely used in Africa, India and China. Making a solar cooker from a heavy duty cardboard box is a cost effective way of cooking without using electricity while recycling waste cardboard.
Making fun things for the kids to do is a great way to recycle your cardboard boxes while teaching them something new. Kids love cardboard boxes and will play with them for hours. They often love to play with the packaging more than the contents.
If you have finished with your house moving boxes and do not want to store them, you can offer them to a local school or crafts organisation for them to use in projects, or just for storage.
Recycling and reusing cardboard boxes is very environmentally friendly, with less materials going to the landfill site. Cardboard boxes are available in all shapes and sizes and can be flat packed for easy storage. Large organisations which use a lot of cardboard boxes, such as supermarkets, can make them into bales and get them collected by a specialist waste management company. This is big business and contributes to a more sustainable environment. The company can create a new income stream from used cardboard boxes as waste management companies will pay per tonne for materials collected. Individual domestic households can help as well. Products made from cardboard can be disposed of through curb side recycling schemes offered by local councils, and include everything from cereal boxes to larger cardboard storage boxes.
Cardboard boxes and cardboard products are very versatile and cost effective to manufacture making them a highly sought after commodity. However, they must be disposed of responsibly or put to some other use once the original use has been fulfilled. As environmental concern is high on the agenda nowadays, it is essential that we send as little to the landfill sites as possible, including seemingly innocuous cardboard boxes.
