Cardboard

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Example of cardboard 57 Cardboard stacked for recycling pick up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - free photo with attribution (Creative Commons).jpg
Example of cardboard

Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light brown in color, depending on the specific product; dyes, pigments, printing, and coatings are available.

Contents

The term "cardboard" has general use in English and French, [1] [2] but the term cardboard is deprecated in commerce and industry as not adequately defining a specific product. [3] Material producers, container manufacturers, [4] packaging engineers, [5] and standards organizations, [6] use more specific terminology.

Usage statistics

In 2020, the United States hit a record high in its yearly use of one of the most ubiquitous manufactured materials on earth, cardboard. With around 80 percent of all the products sold in the United States being packaged in cardboard, over 120 billion pieces were used that year. [7] In the same year, over 13,000 separate pieces of consumer cardboard packaging were thrown away by American households, combined with all paper products, and this constitutes almost 42 percent of all solid waste generated by the United States annually. In an effort to reduce this environmental impact, many households have started repurposing cardboard boxes for eco-friendly purposes.

However, despite the sheer magnitude of paper waste, the vast majority of it is composed of one of the most successful and sustainable packaging materials of modern times - corrugated cardboard, known industrially as corrugated fiberboard. [8]

Statistics [9]
Management Pathway1960197019801990200020052010201520172018
Generation14,11021,40026,35032,68039,94039,64037,68039,92041,06041,900
Recycled2,74031107,21012,07021,04023,61026,85031,20030,08033,890
Composed---------
Combustion with Energy Recovery-703803,5003,6702,9201,9201,7102,1601,570
Landfilled11,37018,22018,76017,11015,23013,1108,9107,0108,8206,440

Types

Tubes made of cardboard, which require high rigidity, but low printability Doot Collection View 2.jpg
Tubes made of cardboard, which require high rigidity, but low printability

Various card stocks

Various types of cards are available, which may be called "cardboard". Included are: thick paper (of various types) or pasteboard used for business cards, aperture cards, postcards, playing cards, catalog covers, binder's board for bookbinding, scrapbooking, and other uses which require higher durability than regular paper.

Paperboard

Playing cards, which require a very rigid single sheet with high surface durability and printability. A studio image of a hand of playing cards. MOD 45148377.jpg
Playing cards, which require a very rigid single sheet with high surface durability and printability.

Paperboard is a paper-based material, usually more than about ten mils (0.010 inches (0.25 mm)) thick. It is often used for folding cartons, set-up boxes, carded packaging, etc. Configurations of paperboard include:

Currently, materials falling under these names may be made without using any actual paper. [10]

Egg cartons Stack of egg cartons.jpg
Egg cartons

Corrugated fiberboard

Corrugated fiberboard Corrugated Cardboard.JPG
Corrugated fiberboard

Corrugated fiberboard is a combination of paperboards, usually two flat liners and one inner fluted corrugated medium. It is often used for making corrugated boxes for shipping or storing products. This type of cardboard is also used by artists as original material for sculpting. [11]

Recycling

Most types of cardboard are recyclable. Boards that are laminates, wax coated, or treated for wet-strength are often more difficult to recycle. Clean cardboard (i.e., cardboard that has not been subject to chemical coatings) "is usually worth recovering, although often the difference between the value it realizes and the cost of recovery is marginal". [12] Cardboard can be recycled for industrial or domestic use. For example, cardboard may be composted or shredded for animal bedding. [13]

History

The material had been first made in France, in 1751, by a pupil of Réaumur, and was used to reinforce playing cards.[ citation needed ] The term cardboard has been used since at least 1848, when Anne Brontë mentioned it in her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall . [14] The Kellogg brothers first used paperboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later, when they began marketing it to the general public, a heat-sealed bag of wax paper was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This development marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box. The Kieckhefer Container Company, run by John W. Kieckhefer, was another early American packaging industry pioneer. It excelled in the use of fiber shipping containers, particularly the paper milk carton.

Examples of different end use

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corrugated fiberboard</span> Composite paper material

Corrugated fiberboard, corrugated cardboard, or corrugated is a type of packaging material consisting of a fluted corrugated sheet and one or two flat linerboards. It is made on "flute lamination machines" or "corrugators" and is used for making corrugated boxes. The corrugated medium sheet and the linerboard(s) are made of kraft containerboard, a paperboard material usually over 0.25 millimetres (0.01 in) thick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Box</span> Type of container

A box is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small or very large and can be used for a variety of purposes, from functional to decorative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paperboard</span> Thick paper-based material

Paperboard is a thick paper-based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper and has certain superior attributes such as foldability and rigidity. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a grammage above 250 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single- or multi-ply.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carton</span> Type of domestic container

A carton is a box or container usually made of liquid packaging board, paperboard and sometimes of corrugated fiberboard. Many types of cartons are used in packaging. Sometimes a carton is also called a box.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardboard box</span> Type of packaging

Cardboard boxes are industrially prefabricated boxes, primarily used for packaging goods and materials. Specialists in industry seldom use the term cardboard because it does not denote a specific material. The term cardboard may refer to a variety of heavy paper-like materials, including card stock, corrugated fiberboard, and paperboard. Cardboard boxes can be readily recycled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiberboard</span> Engineered wood product made out of wood fibers

Fiberboard or fibreboard is a type of engineered wood product that is made out of wood fibers. Types of fiberboard include particle board or low-density fiberboard (LDF), medium-density fiberboard (MDF), and hardboard or high-density fiberboard (HDF).

Coated paper is paper that has been coated by a mixture of materials or a polymer to impart certain qualities to the paper, including weight, surface gloss, smoothness, or reduced ink absorbency. Various materials, including kaolinite, calcium carbonate, bentonite, and talc, can be used to coat paper for high-quality printing used in the packaging industry and in magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulk box</span> Pallet-size shipping box

A bulk box, also known as a bulk bin, skid box, pallet box, bin box, gaylord, or octabin, is a pallet-size box used for storage and shipping of bulk or packaged goods. Bulk boxes can be designed to hold many different types of items such as plastic pellets, watermelons, electronic components, and even liquids; some bulk boxes are stackable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folding carton</span> Type of paperboard packaging

The folding carton created the packaging industry as it is known today, beginning in the late 19th century. The process involves folding carton made of paperboard that is printed, laminated, cut, then folded and glued. The cartons are shipped flat to a packager, which has its own machinery to fold the carton into its final shape as a container for a product. Some styles of folding cartons can be made of E-flute or micro-flute corrugated fiberboard.

Cardboard is a generic term for a heavy-duty paper.

Deinking is the industrial process of removing printing ink from paperfibers of recycled paper to make deinked pulp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liquid packaging board</span>

Liquid packaging board is a multi-ply paperboard with high stiffness, strong wet sizing and a high barrier coating, e.g. plastic. Only virgin paper fibers are used. The barrier coating must hold the liquid and prevent migration of air and flavors through the paperboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-lined chipboard</span>

White-lined chipboard is a grade of paperboard typically made from layers of waste paper or recycled fibers. Most often it comes with two to three layers of coating on the top and one layer on the reverse side. Because of its recycled content it will be grey from the inside. The main end use for this type of board is for packaging of frozen or chilled food, cereals, shoes, toys and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solid unbleached board</span>

Solid unbleached board, also known as SUB, is a grade of paperboard typically made of unbleached chemical pulp. Most often it comes with two to three layers of mineral or synthetic pigment coating on the top and one layer on the reverse side. Recycled fibres are sometimes used to replace the unbleached chemical pulp.

The wet strength of paper and paperboard is a measure of how well the web of fibers holding the paper together can resist a force of rupture when the paper is wet. Wet strength is routinely expressed as the ratio of wet to dry tensile force at break.

Ecologic Brands Inc. is a United States company that specializes in creating eco-friendly packaging for consumer products. The products are made from sustainable materials and are designed to be recyclable or compostable. The company also provides branding and marketing services to help companies promote their environmentally conscious products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plastic container</span>

Plastic containers are containers made exclusively or partially of plastic. Plastic containers are ubiquitous either as single-use or reuseable/durable plastic cups, plastic bottles, plastic bags, foam food containers, Tupperware, plastic tubes, clamshells, cosmetic containers, up to intermediate bulk containers and various types of containers made of corrugated plastic. The entire packaging industry heavily depends on plastic containers or containers with some plastic content, besides paperboard and other materials. Food storage nowadays relies mainly on plastic food storage containers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Packaging waste</span> Post-use container and packing refuse

Packaging waste, the part of the waste that consists of packaging and packaging material, is a major part of the total global waste, and the major part of the packaging waste consists of single-use plastic food packaging, a hallmark of throwaway culture. Notable examples for which the need for regulation was recognized early, are "containers of liquids for human consumption", i.e. plastic bottles and the like. In Europe, the Germans top the list of packaging waste producers with more than 220 kilos of packaging per capita.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overpackaging</span> Use of excess packaging

Overpackaging is the use of excess packaging. The Institute of Packaging Professionals defines overpackaging as “a condition where the methods and materials used to package an item exceed the requirements for adequate containment, protection, transport, and sale”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Closed-loop box reuse</span> Business practice

Closed Loop Box Reuse, is the process by which boxes or other containers are reused many times. It is a form of reusable packaging.

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of CARDBOARD". www.merriam-webster.com. 21 June 2023.
  2. ↑ "Oxford Languages | the Home of Language Data".[ dead link ]
  3. ↑ Walter Soroka, Illustrated Glossary of Packaging Terminology, p. 154.
  4. ↑ What is Corrugated?. Fibre Box Association. Archived from the original on 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
  5. ↑ Soroka, W. Illustrated Glossary of Packaging Terminology (Second ed.). Institute of Packaging Professionals.
  6. ↑ D996 Standard Terminology of Packaging, and Distribution Environments. ASTM International. 2004.
  7. ↑ US EPA, OLEM (2017-09-07). "Containers and Packaging: Product-Specific Data". www.epa.gov. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  8. ↑ Shaer, Matthew (28 November 2022). "Where Does All the Cardboard Come From? I Had to Know". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ 1960-2018 Total Paper and Paperboard Containers and Packaging in MSW by Weight (in thousands of U.S. tons).Source : American Forest and Paper Association
  10. ↑ Mani, Karthik (May 10, 2023). "5 ways Cardboard Safety Matches are used in Business". www.quenker.com.
  11. ↑ Art, Langan. "Langan Art". Langan Art.
  12. ↑ AGR Manser, Alan Keeling, Practical Handbook of Processing and Recycling Municipal Waste (1996), p. 298, 8.1.2.
  13. ↑ Nicky Scott, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: An Easy Household Guide (2007), p. 31.
  14. ↑ "cardboard" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
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