Every day millions of cardboard boxes are used to ship products around the world. Many of these boxes arrive on doorsteps containing our latest online purchases. But at what environmental cost? According to Canopy, over 3 billion trees are cut down every year for the paper packaging industry. That’s an astonishing 95 trees a second!

Moreover, recycling doesn’t really reduce the environmental impact. This is because cardboard can’t be recycled infinitely and the process itself is environmentally harmful. Therefore it’s much better to keep it in use for as long as possible. Luckily there are plenty of things you can do with your unwanted boxes…

1. Reuse Your Own Cardboard Boxes

Cardboard is incredibly versatile and can be reused for all sorts of things. Those strong delivery boxes containing your online orders are super durable. Use them as storage boxes in your home office or turn them into a play den for your cat! If you can’t find a use for them yourself, advertise them on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree.

For businesses, think about whether you can reuse the cardboard you receive products or raw materials in. Perhaps you can send out products to customers in your once used boxes. Or those cardboard layer pads can be reused as pallet slip sheets.

2. Repurpose Your Used Boxes

Corrugated cardboard is a strong and versatile material meaning it can reused 3 or 4 times before it needs to be recycled. Therefore it can be used for lots of different things. Make a low cost and eco-friendly void fill using a simple shredding machine. Taking care of your own cardboard waste may also mean you can reduce your waste handling or recycling costs.

3. Send Your Used Cardboard To Reuseabox

If you are producing large quantities of used boxes, Reuseabox collect your unwanted cardboard free of charge. Using our Reuse Model, we ensure the boxes are reused by other companies all over the country. This isn’t just a great way of cutting down packaging costs, it’s also much better for the planet. Find out more about Diverting Your Used Cardboard to Reuse.