Cardboard recycling, like recycling of any kind, reduces waste, conserves resources, and creates jobs. Keeping cardboard out of our landfills is a worthwhile goal for anyone who wants a safer, cleaner, and healthier planet. If your business receives shipments and supplies in cardboard boxes, take a moment to learn about the cardboard recycling process. 

5 Steps of Cardboard Recycling

1. Collecting

Cardboard may or may not be collected curbside, along with your business’s other recyclables, depending on the policy of your city or county. If curbside recycling of cardboard is not available in your area, you can find the drop-off center locations nearest you on Google.

2. Sorting

In a recycling service center, cardboard gets sorted according to type, whether corrugated or boxboard. Corrugated boxes of all sizes are acceptable for recycling as are the boxboard packages used for cereals and sodas. Cardboard containers coated with wax or stained with grease, such as pizza boxes, are exempt.

3. Shredding

Once sorted, the paper product gets shredded and pulped. Shredding and perforating machines break cardboard down into small pieces. These pieces then get soaked in water to create pulp. New pulp, usually wood chips, gets added to this slurry to make it firm.

4. Filtering

The next step in cardboard recycling is filtering. Any leftover tape, adhesive, or string is removed from the pulp. Dyes and inks get washed out as well by placing the pulp in a floatation chamber along with chemicals that completely strip them from the product.

5. Finishing

Drying is the final step in cardboard recycling. The pulp is shifted to a large conveyor to dry. Excess water is squeezed out of the pulp and it gets flattened into sheets called linerboards. Then the linerboards are glued together and used to manufacture new boxboard and corrugated cardboard.

If you have a business in Arkansas, in Russellville, Pottsville, Atkins, Dover, London, or Dardanelle, let RTI Trash handle your cardboard recycling needs. This garbage collection and commercial trash recycler has served the region responsibly since 1978.  To learn more about RTI Trash, connect with them on Facebook, or reach them by phone at (479) 890-2662.