Most people know that cardboard is recyclable. Far fewer understand what actually happens during the recycling process — and why it matters that you recycle corrugated materials properly. Let's trace the complete journey.
Step 1: Collection and Sorting
The recycling process begins with collection. At EcoBoxes NY, we collect used boxes and corrugated materials from businesses across the NYC metro area. But before anything goes to a recycling facility, we do something most recyclers don't: we sort for reuse.
Approximately 40% of the "recyclable" boxes we collect are actually still in good enough condition to be resold. These boxes get cleaned, graded, and entered into our used box inventory. This is the most environmentally efficient outcome — reuse avoids the entire energy-intensive recycling process.
The remaining 60% — boxes that are too damaged, wet, or worn for reuse — proceed to recycling.
Step 2: Baling
Sorted recyclable corrugated is compressed into bales using industrial balers. Each bale weighs approximately 1,000–1,500 lbs and contains hundreds of flattened boxes. Baling makes transportation efficient — a single trailer can carry 20+ tons of baled OCC (Old Corrugated Containers).
Step 3: Pulping
At the paper mill, bales are loaded into a massive machine called a pulper (or hydrapulper). This is essentially a giant blender that mixes the cardboard with large quantities of water, breaking down the corrugated material into a slurry of individual cellulose fibers.
The pulping process takes 15–20 minutes and produces a thick, gray mixture that looks like oatmeal. This mixture is called "stock" or "furnish."
Step 4: Screening and Cleaning
The raw pulp contains contaminants that must be removed before it can become new paper:
- Screening: The pulp passes through screens with progressively smaller openings, removing staples, tape, plastic fragments, and other debris.
- Centrifugal cleaning: Heavy contaminants (sand, glass, metal) are separated by spinning the pulp at high speed.
- Flotation de-inking: If the original boxes had heavy printing, air bubbles are injected into the pulp. Ink particles attach to the bubbles and float to the surface, where they're skimmed off.
Step 5: Refining
Clean pulp fibers are passed through refining equipment that gently abrades the fiber surfaces, creating tiny fibrils (hair-like projections) that help the fibers bond together more effectively when formed into new paper.
Step 6: Papermaking
The refined pulp is diluted to approximately 1% fiber / 99% water and spread onto a fast-moving wire mesh (the "forming fabric"). As water drains through the mesh, the fibers mat together into a thin sheet.
This wet sheet passes through a series of press rolls that squeeze out more water, then through heated drying cylinders that evaporate the remaining moisture. The finished paper emerges at the other end at speeds of up to 60 mph.
Step 7: Corrugating
The recycled paperboard is now ready to become new corrugated boxes. At a corrugating plant, flat sheets of linerboard and fluting medium are combined:
- The fluting medium is heated and passed through corrugating rolls that create the signature wave pattern
- Adhesive is applied to the tips of the corrugations
- Flat linerboard is pressed onto the adhesive-coated corrugations
- A second linerboard sheet is applied to the other side
The result is new corrugated board made from recycled fibers — ready to be cut, scored, folded, and assembled into boxes.
The Fiber Lifecycle
- Used as an additive in lower-grade paper products
- Composted as a carbon-rich soil amendment
- Used in molded fiber products (egg cartons, packaging inserts)
Why Proper Recycling Matters
- Dry
- Free of food residue
- Separated from non-paper materials
- Flattened (saves space and transportation costs)
Or better yet — sell your used boxes to us. We'll sort everything properly and ensure maximum reuse before any recycling occurs.