Cardboard

Cardboard is most commonly manufactured into boxes, paper towel tubes, toilet rolls, cereal boxes, cartons.

Save a tree! Recycle a box. Cardboard is made of paper, which in its place is made of wood fibres. The production of 1 ton of virgin cardboard (material that doesn’t contain recycled cardboard) requires 3 tons of wood. This is why it is important to recycle cardboard waste for the production of new cardboard, because this saves a lot of trees.

See box

Alternatives to cardboard boxes are wooden or plastic crates.  The advantage of crates over cardboard boxes is their lifespan; they can be reused more often. If buying plastic crates, choose good quality ones which will last a lifetime.

Cardboard is great in the garden! Unfold some boxes and place over weed-prone areas. Douse them with water to use them as a weed barrier.

Shredded cardboard can be added to your compost pile as brown material. If you don’t have a shredder, tear the cardboard into tiny pieces and soak the chunks in a little bit of water before adding it to your compost pile.

Cardboard boxes are a great toy for children (and cats!) and can be used to build forts, made into airplanes, cat castles (check online).

Cardboard tubes from paper towels and toilet rolls can be used to make puppets, dolls and other framing structures.  They can keep things like tinsel, wool and string tidy. Two toilet roll tubes folded inside a third one make great firestarters/kindling.

Small boxes can be reused as gift boxes or for packaging postal items.

Cereal boxes can be used to reinforce envelopes, make bookmarks or magazine holders. They also make good templates for crafting your own envelopes.

Large boxes can be used for animal bedding, mulching, composting or under-bed storage.

Clean, flattened cardboard can be recycled at the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre.

Where does all the cardboard go?

Also take to the waste transfer station in Liffiton Street. 

Please recycle rather than send to landfill.