Corrugated Packaging Corrugated Packaging Corrugated Packaging
Renewable
Sustainable
Reliable
Viable
Recyclable

  

Smart choices today give the future a great start.

Making smart, responsible choices means having a vision for the future. That includes the life cycle of your packaging. In 2006, the average corrugated box consisted of 43 percent recycled fiber.

We continue to set recovery goals and find new ways to minimize waste. That's the smart choice for everyone. 

Corrugated is the single most recycled packaging material: 80.7 percent of corrugated produced in 2008 was recovered for recycling, and almost all of that material was recycled into new products. 

 

Why Recycle?


Recycling corrugated helps decrease solid waste disposal in landfills.  It also provides fiber that is reused to make new corrugated, so we can use less new, raw material.  Recycling corrugated even earns revenue for the end-user, because that recovered material (called "OCC," for "old corrugated containers") is valuable to paper mills and manufacturers of new corrugated.

How to Recycle Corrugated

To find a local recycling center in your area, click the link below, under "Earth 911" – then enter your zip code and let us find it for you! To see how the corrugated recycling process works, click here.  

To find out where to recycle corrugated in your area, Click Here!

To ensure proper recycling, and to get the best prices for your OCC (if you represent a business), follow these guidelines:
  • Separate any contaminants from the corrugated, including strapping, plastic bags, Styrofoam, packing materials or food waste.  Dealers pay the highest price for clean corrugated. 
  • Businesses can earn money for their OCC by baling it.

  • Remove any boxes that cannot be recycled, especially those that are contaminated by toxic or hazardous materials. If the corrugated has been treated with plastic extrusions or laminates, wax coatings, etc., it cannot be recycled (unless it is marked with either of the recyclable certification symbols shown below, which indicate the coating has been tested and proven recyclable). These symbols are applied to corrugated that has been treated for moisture protection using wax alternatives that have passed the industry's repulpability/recyclability testing protocol:

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  • The following symbols also indicate recyclability:
            
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