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garoteFun fact: 35 million tons of container cardboard is produced in the US each year.
In 2014 (latest year with data available) 89 million tons of materials from cardboard to plastic were recycled or composted, relatively reducing greenhouse gas emissions an amount equivalent to keeping 38 million passenger cars off the road for the entire year.
(Cardboard can be recycled around 4 to 5 times before the fibers are too short to bond together into cardboard, and must be used for other purposes.)
Oddly enough, the rise of online retail stores has not drastically increased the use of cardboard, for two reasons: shipping directly to customers results in less intermediate packaging, and, online retailers aggressively optimize their use of cardboard (smaller boxes, more items per box) in ways that are not possible in other supply chains.
It's hard to overemphasize the impact of recycling here: in 1993, 55% of cardboard used in America made it into the recycling bin, and the rest went into the trash. In 2016, that percentage was 89%.
Because of this, the total amount of new cardboard made in the US last year was THE SAME as the total made in 1995, almost a quarter century ago.
That's pretty amazing - if you'd asked me, I would have guessed that we were using way, waaaaay more cardboard nowadays.
In 2014 (latest year with data available) 89 million tons of materials from cardboard to plastic were recycled or composted, relatively reducing greenhouse gas emissions an amount equivalent to keeping 38 million passenger cars off the road for the entire year.
(Cardboard can be recycled around 4 to 5 times before the fibers are too short to bond together into cardboard, and must be used for other purposes.)
Oddly enough, the rise of online retail stores has not drastically increased the use of cardboard, for two reasons: shipping directly to customers results in less intermediate packaging, and, online retailers aggressively optimize their use of cardboard (smaller boxes, more items per box) in ways that are not possible in other supply chains.
It's hard to overemphasize the impact of recycling here: in 1993, 55% of cardboard used in America made it into the recycling bin, and the rest went into the trash. In 2016, that percentage was 89%.
Because of this, the total amount of new cardboard made in the US last year was THE SAME as the total made in 1995, almost a quarter century ago.
That's pretty amazing - if you'd asked me, I would have guessed that we were using way, waaaaay more cardboard nowadays.
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Date: 2018-03-15 04:26 am (UTC)I don't. Ok, maybe I buy some crap, and they send it to me in a box inside a box.