Where Does Your Recycled Cardboard Go?

If your small business recycles cardboard—great job! You’re reducing landfill waste, cutting hauling costs, and supporting a more sustainable supply chain. But have you ever wondered what actually happens to that neatly baled cardboard after it leaves your back room?

Let’s take a quick trip down the cardboard recycling chain.

Once your cardboard is baled and picked up by a recycler, it heads to a local recycling facility. Here, it’s weighed, inspected for contamination (like food or wax), and sorted by grade. Clean, dry cardboard is gold—especially corrugated boxes.

Next, the cardboard is shredded into small pieces and mixed with water to create a slurry called pulp. This pulp is filtered to remove any tape, labels, or staples. If you’ve ever seen a paper mill in action, this is where the magic starts.

The pulp is spread onto massive screens, drained, and pressed to remove excess water. It’s then dried and rolled into large sheets of recycled cardboard material. These sheets are now ready for a second life.

Most of this recycled material becomes new corrugated boxes, packaging, or paperboard (used for things like cereal boxes). Some may even be turned into paper towels or other paper products. The recycled content helps manufacturers cut down on energy and raw material use.

Recycling your cardboard isn’t just good for the planet—it feeds a massive, global industry that relies on clean, used material to function. By baling and recycling your cardboard properly, you’re directly supporting that system. And if your business works with product packaging or shipping, you could be using recycled material yourself—completing the loop.

In short, your recycling efforts don’t end when the truck pulls away—they help power the next cycle of packaging and production.  So reach out to Greene Recycling to schedule your cardboard bale pickup route and start helping the environment and saving money today