Cardboard & Paper Recycling

Cardboard

Cardboard is one of the largest, single components of municipal solid waste and is also the largest category of materials recycled every year, with the U.S. recovering almost 90% of it. Recycling cardboard:

• uses only 75% of the energy needed to make new cardboard 
• reduces sulfur dioxide emissions (a gas that causes acid rain) in half
• Recycling one ton of cardboard saves
  • about 46 gallons of oil
  • 390 kWh of electricity
  • 6.6 million BTUs of energy
  • 3 tons of trees
  • 9 cubic yards of landfill space

Mixed Paper, Newspaper, Catalogs, and Glossy Magazines

Every ton (2,000 pounds) of recycled paper saves:

• 17 trees
• 380 gallons of oil
• 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space
• 275 pounds of sulfur
• 350 pounds of limestone
• 60,000 gallons of water
• 225-kilowatt hours of electricity

This equals 64% in energy savings, 58% in water savings, and 60 pounds less in air pollution as compared to producing new paper. Through paper recycling, American Forest and Paper Association member companies avoided greenhouse gas emissions of more than 20 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalents each year.