Recycle Your Boxes

This year has change not only the United States but also the world.  The effects of the current situation have been felt in so many different areas and have come with so many consequences.  The economic shutdown and the regulations and stay at home orders that would follow changed the economy.  The United States saw an uptick in online sales and what that did was increase shipping to homes all across the United States.  People were no longer able to shop at many brick and mortar stores and that ended up in them purchasing from eCommerce stores consistently.  This was wonderful because we were all able to get goods and services delivered, but it also had a cost.  It meant that millions of more cardboard boxes would be shipped each day. The issue is that many people are not recycling those boxes and that the buildup and cost of this are great.  It is unfortunate and I have to admit it has been a struggle and hassle on my end as well.

 

My family was one of those ordering more online.  We were forced to stay home due to local laws and this meant that we had to order online in order to stay healthy and happy. What we began to notice was that the boxes ended up going to the garage and it started to pile up fast.  Within a week I was unable to put them all in our single recycle trash can.  The major issue is that I have to pay to recycle in my city and very few people end up doing it.  The majority of boxes get put in the regular trash and end up in a landfill.  Considering that we are all ordering 100 to 1000% more online means that the landfills are going to be getting very full very fast and all of those paper products are going to waste.

 

Personally, this is a sad thing because it means that more trees will be cut down in order to fill the cardboard boxes quota and that we will be putting more of it into the ground due to the lack of recycling.  The quantities are in the millions and billions of tons of waste each year and it is really sad to see. But it is not all sad and in many ways, I have seen many people actually work on making a difference.  Word is spreading and many are seeing the waste and are not happy about it.  They are deciding to recycle as well and they are also stuck in the same situation as me and limited to one can per week.

 

The best option to avoid the pile-up of boxes is to break them all down and make them fit perfectly into your trashcan.  I started to use my hands but after so many, I got tired of big cuts and decided to grab scissors to break them down.  I started to cut them up but then after a few boxes, my hands started to get hot spots because scissors are not meant to do this long term. It caused me a lot of pain and then I decided to go and get a nice fixed blade knife.  I put shoes and pants on and was very careful.  But I found I could carve boxes like a turkey and was able to get the right size for my green to recycle trash can. I hope you can do the same!