Category Archives: Cardboard – Corrugated

Cardboard – Corrugated

Waste Recycling Pizza Boxes

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For as long as there’s been cardboard box recycling, we’ve been repeatedly warned that cardboard pizza boxes cannot be waste recycled. But all of that is about to change for pizza eaters in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, where they can now drop off used pizza boxes at special recycling points throughout the community.

The common knowledge, until recently, was that it was impossible to recycle pizza boxes as they are covered in grease and leftover cheese and can contaminate the recycling process. There was nothing to be done except to put them in the garbage and send them off to the landfill.

Fortunately for recycling efforts, some industry experts disagree with this belief and are working to include those pizza boxes with all other cardboard. The belief is that food contamination can be removed during the preparation and cleaning process – and while some grease and leftover cheese is ok, pieces of actual pizza are not. More community like Old Orchand Beach are moving to include pizza boxes in the recycling pool – if not for cardboard recycling, then for composting.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, close to thirty million tons of cardboard was discarded in 2010, with 85% being recycled.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: What popular assumptions are keeping your business, home, or community from increasing your waste recycling efforts? The recycling marketplace is constantly changing, so what was once called impossible might be reasonable and attainable today!

 

FedEx Earns Profits For Waste Recycling

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The package transportation company Federal Express didn’t create its waste recycling program overnight, but the business has shown how profits can result from reducing the amount of materials sent to landfills. The company currently estimates that it earns ten dollars for every one spent on recycling or recyclable products.

The company has indicated that they have recycled over ninety three million pounds of waste material since recycling operations began in 2006. Last year alone, close to fifty million pounds of materials were recycled.

In 2004, the company realized that waste recycling and environmental sustainability were concepts that weren’t going to fade away and that they need to start planning how to address them and incorporate them into the business model. The now successful plan started with very humble beginnings:  two balers that were part of a vendor’s “lease-to-buy” offer. Getting the waste materials to a central recycling location was simple, given FedEx’s hauling networks throughout the nation.

Despite the success, the company continues to look for way to be more sustainable. One recent change involves swapping out packing material such as peanuts and plastic air “pillows” for reused shredded cardboard shred that originates from the FedEx recycling center. That change satisfied customers demand and continues to save the company money.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: From humble beginnings grow great change! If your business is new to recycling, take a page from FedEx’s play book and start small. Control your costs, monitor growth, and take advantage of new recycling and reuse opportunities when they arise. You’ll be surprised what can be accomplished over time!

Company Expands Waste Recycling of Cardboard Boxes

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A small, independent business focusing on cardboard reuse company was recently awarded grant money for expansion through Chase Bank and the popular website, Living Social.

UsedCardboardBoxes.com reclaims used cardboard boxes, re-purposes them, and then makes them available for resale.  Their grant award was $250,000 to help with expansion and outreach. The business purchases substantial quantities of no longer wanted boxes from manufacturers. UsedCardboardBoxes.com then re-sells the boxes to individuals and other businesses for less than the price of new materials. Manufacturers have been eager to sell their unwanted boxes as it reduces waste disposal fees and relives them of the responsibility of recycling the cardboard.

In addition to UsedCardboardBoxes.com receiving cash, twelve other small businesses were also winners. These included EcoScraps, a food waste recycling business focusing on compost and lawn and outdoor products; and PlanetReuse, an online marketplace for reclaimed building and construction materials.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Making money from waste recycling requires “out of the box” thinking like UsedCardboardBoxes.com! Whether you’re starting a new business or firmly established take a look for new ways to turn what’s in your waste disposal container into cash! You might be surprised what new ideas you can come up with.

Fort Worth Increases Waste Recycling Options

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The residents of Forth Worth, Texas, now have increased recycling opportunities in their community. The city did has recently announced that households can now recycle pots, pans, pizza boxes, paper beverage cartons, and juice boxes as part of the regular trash and waste recycling services. The city currently accepts plastics, glass, cans, paper and cardboard in its recycling facility.

For the newly added items, residents are being asked to clean food waste off of boxes and containers so that they are easier to process. For kitchen pans and pots, sorting to determine if the item is aluminum or steel will take place at the recycling facility.

Due to the anticipated influx in recycling, it is expected that the sorting facility will be hiring new employees.  The facility will continue to process materials using manual labor from a conveyor belt, however, if the new recycling initiate is a success, the facility will invest in acquiring new sorting technology to enhance and improve the waste recycling process.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Think recycling can’t improve your business? Think again! Not only can you do your part to protect the environment, but you can add dollars to your bottom line and help to increase employment.

Renewable Packaging Choices

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As consumer attitudes about environmentalism become increase in awareness, more and more businesses are incorporating these concerns into their delivery model. Utilizing sustainable packaging is one area that has seen great interest by consumers and adoption of by businesses.

For businesses looking to shift to environmentally-friendly packaging, many concerns arise in the areas of affordability, safety, and overall effectiveness. When it comes to packaging your product, you want materials that are strong and durable. Consumers need to trust that products are secure within and won’t be damaged during transport. While many packaging options made of recycled cardboard and plastic are just as stable as their traditional counterparts, it’s always worth conducting safety tests of your own to ensure the packaging meets your customers’ standards.

Making the switch to environmentally-conscious packaging is something that can benefit both your customers and your public relations efforts within your community. Once you select the packaging option that best meets your business needs, be sure to let the word out! You may be pleasantly surprised at the response you receive!

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Every business needs to stay in-tune with the changing needs of their customers. If you utilize packaging for your products or services, consider the benefits of going green – you may win more customers and support because of it!

United Parcel Service Increases Waste Recycling

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It was recently announced in the 2011 Corporate Sustainability Report that UPS, also known as United Parcel Service, has reduced their waste disposal of solid materials by almost three percent compared to 2010. The company, known for their iconic brown trucks and package delivery service recycled almost fifty-four thousand tons of corrugated containers, wooden pallets and wood-product waste materials, and metals.

It should come as no surprise that for UPS solid waste materials are primarily corrugated cardboard containers which comprise more than half of all the waste recycled. Waste materials made of wood or wood by-products make up a quarter of all waste recycled and metal waste materials arrive at a distant third.

UPS has also expanded its electronics waste recycling program for computer and scanning equipment and batteries. Since launching the initiative in 2000, the company has recycled over thirty two million pounds of electronics. Over forty thousand pounds of batteries were recycled last year alone a four percent increase over the previous year.

Two UPS facilities have been designated as achieving a zero landfill waste disposal goal. These two locations will serve as test centers for waste recycling and waste disposal policies and procedures that can then be applied throughout all UPS facilities.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: UPS serves as a great example of turning waste disposal into waste recycling. How can your business operate differently to save the environment and cut back on disposal fees?

Billions of Dollars in Recyclables Wasted Every Year

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In 2010 over four million tons of recyclable cardboard, estimated at a value of over one billion dollars, was disposed of in landfills.

This information comes from the non-profit group As You Sow that advocates for corporate social responsibility and environmentalism.

The group also reports that PET materials with a value of almost three billion were sent to landfills in the same year. While close to half of all aluminum cans are recycled, at a value of one an a half billion, the total number of PET recycling is closer to 25%.

HDPE materials such as laundry detergent bottle and milk jugs was ranked second, after cardboard, as the most valuable discarded recyclable, worth almost three billion dollars.

As You Sow encourages companies to increase their responsibility for the recyclable material that they generate during the manufacturing process, and also suggests that municipalities improve their waste and recycling collection methods to obtain larger amounts of these valuable goods.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Are you leaving money on the table by not recycling and reselling items that you are currently paying to dispose of as garbage? Take a look at your waste stream and see if your trash can be someone else’s treasure!

 

Waste Recycling at Shopping Centers

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Americans, on average, visit a shopping mall or shopping center nearly three times a month thus making these shopping and socializing destinations an ideal place to practice and encourage effective waste recycling. For businesses responsible for the management and maintenance of these mixed use developments, establishing the habit to promote recycling by retailers, restaurants, and the public can result in saving opportunities. Particular types of waste to focus on for any shopping establishment include:

  • Cardboard boxes and packaging
  • Wooden shipping and shortage pallets
  • Plastic, glass, and metal containers
  • Paper of all kinds (newspapers, office…)
  • Restaurant food waste
  • Organic waste from landscaping

The Environmental Protection Agency has specialized materials and resources for managers of commercial buildings to learn more about creating and maintaining effective recycling and waste reduction programs. A key reason for shopping centers and malls to adopt recycling programs is that it saves money by decreasing disposal costs and can possibly create revenue by selling recycled materials. Visit the EPA’s website to read success stories of retailers and commercial centers who implemented recycling programs to learn about best practice strategies.

Waste Care Wants You to Remember: Every piece of waste that is not recycled must be disposed of in a landfill. Implementing full-scale recycling programs can save you and your commercial tenants money while helping to preserve the environment.

Is Your Business Recycling Paper?

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Did you know that waste paper contributes to more than twenty-nine percent of all solid waste? When you look at how much waste your business generates each month know that you could reduce that considerably by recycling paper. Paper recycling is typically the easiest of all office waste to implement programs for and for good reasons.Recycling reduces our need for increasing amounts of landfill space and preserves the environment. Many of America’s paper manufacturers already utilize paper collected through recycling programs, and rely on this stream to create new paper products. When trees are cut down carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere and this contributes to high levels of greenhouses gasses. Greenhouse gasses have been shown to contribute to climate change, rising sea levels, and radical changes to the environmental landscape.

What are the direct and immediate benefits of recycling paper? When your business recycles over a ton of paper it:

  • Reduces the need for more landfill space
  • Saves thousands of gallons of water
  • Provides power to supply a home for half a year
  • Eliminates greenhouse gases by one MTCE

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Paper recycling is one of the most efficient things your business can do to save money and the environment. Go green and save green!

Reduce Energy Use By Recycling

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Do you want to see the immediate energy saving benefits of what recycling can do? Visit the iWARM calculator available on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website and learn about how recycling workplace and household items equates to energy usage.

Here are just a few fun facts: Making the choice to recycle an aluminum can rather than put it in the garbage, produces energy equal to operating a 60W incandescent light for a little over 4 hours, or a compact fluorescent light for over 20 hours?  Think about all the cans of beverage you, your family, and your co-workers consume in a given day – if all those cans were recycled that’s enough to light an entire house or small building!

But the iWARM calculator shows more than just the energy benefits of recycling cans. It can also help you determine the energy savings for all these common items:

  • Metal coat hangers
  • Glass bottles
  • Steel cans
  • Corrugated cardboard
  • Gallon plastic (HDPE) milk jug
  • Gallon plastic (HDPE) detergent container
  • Plastic grocery bag
  • Plastic (PET) bottles
  • Catalogs
  • Weekly magazines
  • White business envelopes
  • Paperboard Cereal boxes
  • Daily newspapers
  • Printer paper
  • and much more!

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Most homes and business have all the recyclable items listed above. Are you recycling them or adding them in with trash? If you aren’t recycling then you’re adding additional costs to your bottom line! Disposing of your waste and recycling in an efficient, compliant manner can help to save the environment and save you money!