How is Cardboard Recycled?
Cardboard is made of cellulose fibres, generally from wood pulp. To recycle cardboard it is first soaked in water and agitated to release the fibres, turning them back into pulp. Metal and ink contaminants are removed, additional finishing chemicals are added and the pulp is pressed into sheets and dried (for detail, see “Recycling Office Paper”). Although the fibres get shorter each time they are pulped, cardboard can be recycled four or five times before they disintegrate. Recycled cardboard is primarily used to make boxes and other packaging, but has a range of other uses including stationery, animal bedding and coffins.
Cardboard is one of the simplest paper materials to recycle. The cardboard is soaked in water and the paper is agitated so it turns back into pulp. The dyes and inks are removed using chemicals and the pulp is dried after being pressed into sheets. Cardboard can be recycled 4-5 times. You can find more information here: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/eie/reccard3.ht…
At the mill, the corrugated is pulped and blended with additional pulp from wood chips. Broken, thus shorter and weaker, old fibers are blended with the new pulp to make the medium. Recycled paper fibers and new pulp are blended to make linerboard. Then the medium and the linerboard are shipped to a boxboard plant, where the manufacturing process is finished. The medium is corrugated by specially-geared machines, the linerboards are glued on, and the resulting flat pieces, called mats, are trimmed to size and creased along a pattern of folds. The mats are shipped flat to customers who set them up into boxes. Then the boxes are used to package products for shipping.
