Re-Using Cardboard Boxes
Becoming a more sustainable small business is a key focus of ours. We look to every part of our operation to improve what we do, finding efficiencies for our environment - and often the bottom line.
Currently, we end up recycling very little cardboard because we re-use almost all the boxes we receive our supplies in. Only those boxes that are too damaged to re-use will end up being recycled at our local depot.
The average weight of a re-used cardboard box is around 700g. We used an average of 30 re-used boxes a week (over our three week measurement period).
That’s 21kg of cardboard a week – which equates to around 1,092kg of cardboard saved each year!
If you combine that with the cardboard that we’ve avoided using because of our shift to buying canola oil in bulk then we’re saving well over one tonne of cardboard!
What are the benefits?
Finding reliable information online is difficult, but we can say with confidence that we’re saving:
Trees
One popular and often repeated statistic is that it takes 17 trees to make one tonne of paper. Presumably, that’s not too different for a tonne of cardboard. Obviously, this number will be reduced by the percentage of recycled pulp being used.
Energy
Used in the various processes to turn either wood or recycled cardboard into the materials used in the process and then into the finished product.
Transport
From harvesting the trees to delivering the finished cardboard to our warehouse and all the stops in between.
Chemicals
There are many chemicals being used throughout the process to make cardboard, and it’s fair to assume that a lot of them are not that good for the environment.
The following diagram from Kite Packaging illustrates all those various steps - making a carboard box is a lot more intensive that what most of us might assume.
