What happens to cardboard?

Did you know?

Cardboard is one of the most widely recycled materials in the world. In the UK, the recycling rate for paper and cardboard packaging is 70.6%. 

Where your cardboard goes

The cardboard collected at recycling centres is sent to Edwards Recycling facility. Approximately 1,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard is processed and handled weekly.

After being bundled up together, the cardboard is sent to a paper mill where it will be recycled. 

The recycling process

• the cardboard is shredded before being mixed with water and chemicals to break it down into a thick pulp
• the pulp is filtered to remove contaminants like plastic and ink
• it is then mixed with water to get it to the right consistency
• the mixture is pressed and rolled to squeeze out water before being dried on hot rollers
• the material is then wound onto a huge reel 
• the reels are shipped to a packaging plant, where they will be made into cardboard

What happens at the packaging plant

The paper is fed into a corrugator, a machine that makes cardboard by fusing layers of paper together. This is usually a top and bottom layer, with several corrugated sheets in the middle.