Recycling makes it possible to obtain raw materials from waste, introducing them into a new useful life cycle. Cardboard is one of them. It is a fully recyclable material, as long as it is clean and dry.
Cardboard is one of the main raw materials for the manufacture of boxes, containers and packaging, intervening in most production and distribution chains worldwide. The products that reach our hands in one piece are actually made up of several superimposed layers of paper, based on virgin fiber or recycled paper.
In our daily routine, we discard a lot of cardboard. We have two options to avoid wasting it: the first is to carry out the original separation in the corresponding bins, and the second is to reuse it to give it a second chance.
How to prepare cardboard for recycling
Urban recyclers are those who collect cardboard from containers or from different businesses and organizations, and work selling it for later recycling. To make their task easier, the best thing to do is opt for separation at source. You can separate magazines, white paper, cardboard boxes, newspapers, egg cups, and more. It is recommended to flatten the material well and tie everything with thread to facilitate the transfer.
The best place to store them in our home are places free of humidity, sheltered from the rain, since once wet or dirty, they cannot be recycled. If instead of having the material to be recycled at home, we throw it into the paper and cardboard container, it must be neatly folded,
Another point to keep in mind is that cardboard and paper take 1 to 2 years to fully degrade. If the paper is thrown on the ground outdoors and is in a place where it rains, it will degrade in that time. In dry places it usually takes much longer, even millennia.
ideas to reuse
If you prefer to reuse cardboard, you should know that there are thousands of options to do so. The boxes are so versatile that they can be turned into different objects. The simplest is to use them to store things at home, or as a desk organizer, but you can also use them in other ways.
Rethinking our actions is starting to recycle. Keep in mind that everything must be clean and dry, and compact the material as best as possible to create more space in the container and make it easier to move.