Cardboard Recycling

Old corrugated cardboard is a good source of fibre for recycling. It can be compressed and baled for cost effective transport to anywhere in need of fibre for papermaking. The baled boxes are put in a hydropulper which is a large vat of warm water for cleaning and processing. The pulp slurry is then used to make new paper and fiber products.

Mill and corrugator scrap, or broke, is the cleanest source for recycling. Several technologies are available to sort, screen, filter, and chemically treat the recycled paper.

Many extraneous materials have to be removed. Twine, strapping, tape etc are removed from the hydropulper by a "ragger". Metal straps and staples can be screened out or removed by a magnet. Film-backed pressure sensitive tape stays intact: the PSA adhesive and the backing are both removed together.

Materials which are more difficult to remove include wax coatings on corrugated boxes and "stickies", soft rubbery particles which can clog the paper maker and contaminate the recycled paper. Stickies can originate from book bindings, hot melt adhesives, PSA adhesives from paper labels, laminating adhesives of reinforced gummed tapes, etc.

Recycling corrugated fiberboard helps conserve natural resources and energy. It also helps countries without sustainable wood resources build a paper and packaging industry locally and develop their exports to global markets. Over 70% of the corrugated manufactured is recovered, recycled and made into new corrugated products throughout the world.