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Recycle or Compost Cardboard, which is Greener?

Is it more environmentally friendly to compost or recycle cardboard?

You have an old Cardboard box. It’s pretty worn out, but otherwise clean. What is the more environmentally friendly thing to do: recycle it or compost it?

Sending a Cardboard Box to be recycled does take some energy and resources. If you put your cardboard box into a curbside home recycling bin, it has to be transported to a MRF (Materials Recovery Facility), sorted out from the other recyclables, baled and sent to a manufacturer who then processes it and creates new boxes or other paper products with it.

However, this is still a fraction of the energy that is required to manufacture boxes from 100% virgin materials. Recycling 1 ton of cardboard saves 46 gallons of oil!

So if you have clean, dry cardboard, reusing it (if you can) is of course the most environmentally friendly thing to do. But if you have no use for it, or if it is too worn for reuse, recycling it is definitely worthwhile. Corrugated cardboard is a desirable recyclable, there is a strong market for it.

Preparing your cardboard for recycling

  • Be sure to remove any packing peanuts or any other non-cardboard materials from the box.
  • Tape and labels can be left on.
  • Flatten.
  • Make sure it stays dry! Read this article on why not to recycle wet cardboard.

What to Do with Dirty or Wet Boxes

If you have boxes that have any kind of chemicals soaked into them that you wouldn’t want to ingest, you’ll have to throw those in the trash. But if your boxes are just greasy from food, or moldy, or they have gotten wet, you can compost them.

Cardboard is also great for keeping down weeds. Create paths by laying down a layer of cardboard and then spread some mulch on top, or put it in garden areas topped with a layer of grass clippings or other organic materials to smother weeds naturally.

The post Recycle or Compost Cardboard, which is Greener? appeared first on Green and Grumpy.



This post first appeared on Green And Grumpy, please read the originial post: here

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