WE RECYCLE:

• All corrugated cardboard found in boxes, sheets, or packing

WE DO NOT RECYCLE:

• wax coated boxes (fruit and vegetable boxes)
• poly-coated boxes
• pizza boxes
• egg cartons
• any corrugated cardboard contaminated by cooked food, grease, or oil
• plastic corrugated boxes

HOW AND WHERE TO RECYCLE:

• Remove all debris, packing peanuts, stretch wrap, and other non-cardboard packing from the boxes.
• Break down all boxes so they can be stacked flat.
• Staples do not need to be removed from the cardboard.
• Small amounts of cardboard can be stacked on the floor next to corridor recycling containers.
• Broken down cardboard boxes MAY be left in the recycling rooms or recycling areas on the loading docks in MHC and PHP or in Minneapolis TMH and MSL.
• If you have a large amount of cardboard to be recycled, please call Bob Douglas, the Recycling Coordinator, at 962-6388 or submit a request for service so a pick up can be arranged.

FACT ABOUT CARDBOARD: 

• Three quarters of all U.S. paper recycled comes from corrugated and paperboard packaging according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.
• The Environmental Protection Agency's most recent report on Municipal Solid Waste in the U.S. stated that paper and paperboard recovery as a percent of generation 2006 was 51.6% or 44 million tons.  Paper waste which includes cardboard accounts for the largest component of U.S. solid waste at 33.9% of the total.  We can recycle more!
• "Yellow corrugated" is corrugated cardboard that is yellowish in color and weaker than other corrugated boxes.   It is made from heavily recycled fibers that have lost much of their fiber length and as a result, much of their strength. The Pacific rim countries are a source of much of this cardboard and it is considered a contaminant by many paper processors.
• Corrugated cardboard is recycled into more corrugated cardboard or into paperboard or boxboard.
• Paperboard is defined as paper more than 0.3 millimeters thick.  Paperboard or boxboard is not corrugated cardboard. It used to be collected separately as part of residential mixed paper programs. Since Eureka Recycling took over residential recycling for both St. Paul and Minneapolis, recycling has gone into a two stream format and boxboard and cardboard is collected in the fiber stream.
• Recycled paperboard is made from a combination of recycled fibers from various grades of paper stock, with 100 percent of its furnish being recycled fibers. Recycled paperboard represents the largest end use of recovered paper products such as old corrugated containers, old newspapers and mixed office papers. Recycled paperboard is used to manufacture products such as boxboard, folding cartons, set-up boxes, cores, tubes, and cans, book and binder covers, file folders, partitions, game boards, toys, and blister packaging. Many of the products found on grocery store shelves, including cereals, crackers and other dry foods, soaps, detergents, and personal care items, are packaged in recycled paperboard.
• The 100% Recycled Paperboard Alliance (RPA-100%) is a consortium of two-thirds of the U.S. and Canadian recycled paperboard producers formed in 1994 to promote the benefits and increase the use of 100% recycled paperboard. Because of the growing ambiguity and misuse of the recycling chasing arrows symbol, RPA-100% uses its own trademarked symbol for products and packaging made from 100% recycled paperboard. Part of the alliance's goal is to educate consumers on the importance of buying recycled and to provide them with easy ways to locate products with recycled material. Look for this symbol if you would like to encourage 100% recycled boxboard:

  

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