We need to start to take better care of our planet. From global warming to the protection of ecosystems, we now know more than we ever have about ways we can help.
When we think about how we can help the first thought is ‘I can recycle’, but we don’t always do this effectively. Packaging company, Packaging Online, has put together a list of the ways just recycling cardboard can help enormously.
1. Recycling cardboard takes less energy than making new cardboard.
Recycling cardboard uses just 75% of the energy that would be needed to create new cardboard.
It takes four to six times less energy to recycle cardboard than it does to manufacture plastic or aluminium.
Recycling cardboard saves 403.5 kg of CO2 emissions per tonne – equivalent to over 1000 miles of driving in a car.
2. Recycling cardboard actually saves water!
When recycling cardboard the water that is used in its creation isn’t needed as this part has already been completed.
By not needing to produce the cardboard from scratch we save 7,000 tonnes of water for every tonne of cardboard recycled.
Fun fact: Last year, Packaging Online returned 1,126 tonnes of cardboard to be recycled, saving 7.9 million tonnes of water!
3. The recycling of corrugated cardboard alone saves 34 million trees every year!
Corrugated cardboard is the most recycled form of cardboard with 84% of cardboard recycled in the UK being corrugated!
For every tonne of cardboard recycled saves around 17 trees.
Every year this conserves around 680,000 acres of woodland and forest.
4. Recycling cardboard helps to save natural resources like gas and oil.
Recycling 1 tonne of cardboard saves 46 gallons of oil
More fuel is required to manufacture cardboard scratch than recycled cardboard.
Every tonne of cardboard recycled saves us from using more than a bathtub full of oil.
Fun Fact: Packaging Online ships around 26 tonnes of cardboard for recycling per day, equating to 1,196 gallons of oil saved.
5. Recycling cardboard avoids 5.6 million tonnes of cardboard ending up in landfills.
45% of the 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard the UK uses per year is recycled. This would equate to a 200-acre landfill, 130 times the area of the White House
6. The UK composts enough cardboard every year to cover the whole of Oxford in a 1 cm deep layer of cardboard.
Recycling cardboard doesn’t always mean using it for its original purpose - cardboard can be composted and returned to the soil, doing great things for your garden!
1.3 million tonnes of composted cardboard in the UK, this is around 10% of all the cardboard we use
