Generally there are two types of cardboard that are considered to be recyclable. The first is the ruffled kind used in packaging materials called corrugated cardboard. The other is called paperboard or flat cardboard and is the kind most of us are familiar with because it is used in everything from cereal boxes and frozen food containers to shipping boxes, shoe boxes and cylinders. Depending on the rules in your area, some lighter weight cardboard (paperboard) such as cereal and food product boxes can by sorted with your paper products. However, the thicker cardboard associated with storage and packing boxes needs to be unfolded and flattened before it can be recycled. That way it is easier and less expensive to transport to the recycling hubs because it takes up less volume when it is flat. Of course, it is important to keep your cardboard away from any damp or wet areas until it is picked up or taken to a bin. If your community does not provide cardboard recycling, you can take the flattened boxes to your local supermarket and ask them to put your stack with theirs to be recycled. Almost every grocery store or department store participates in a commercial cardboard recycling program. But most of them will not take the lighter weight cardboard or paperboard.

So why is it so important to recycle cardboard? Over 90% of all products shipped inside the United States are shipped in cardboard boxes. Now multiply that worldwide and that's a lot of cardboard to manufacture. Naturally, cardboard is made from pulp and pulp is made from trees. Since there are a limited number of trees on the earth to provide us with oxygen and shade, it makes sense to try to not use so many of them to make all of those boxes. Even more important, the actual process of making cardboard is an environmentally messy one utilizing chemicals known to deplete ozone. When recycled corrugated and flat cardboard is used, it eliminates a lot of extra plastic or Styrofoam packing materials that are not biodegradable and fill up the landfills. Finally, by reusing cardboard, the manufacturing emissions are reduced by half. That's reason enough, don't you agree?

Some cardboard is not recyclable. Milk cartons are one example because they are wax coated to prevent leakage. Any boxes that have leaked some of their contents or gotten repeatedly damp cannot be recycled. The reason is that the chemicals that can be released from stains or moisture can be damaging to breathe if they are stored in a compact space. Some boxes may be treated with laminates, making them not very recyclable. The best is to use your common sense and examine the heavy cardboard. If it is oily, stained, damp, slick or overly dyed, please do not try and recycle it.