Commercial Cardboard Recycling: A Practical Guide for Businesses

Segregated recycling for most businesses has been a legal requirement since April 2025 and yet there are pain points in making that happen consistently and efficiently for cardboard. At Restore Recycle we offer you pain relief.

During the acute years of the Covid pandemic, we wrote about the increased use of cardboard due to the explosion in e-commerce and home delivery services, as well as the shift away from using plastics as padding and wrapping. That rate of growth in cardboard box and packaging usage has continued to climb by around 2.5% year on year between 2021 and 2026 so that, according to latest data*, around 5 billion cardboard boxes are used annually in the UK, equating to approximately 83 boxes per person.

That vast volume of board must be sourced somewhere and, with energy costs and demand for materials only ever rising, the most energy-, cost- and resource-efficient stream comes from the circular economy, aka, recycling.

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The constituent fibres of cardboard can withstand being re-used up to five times over, helping lower the environmental costs and energy/resource usage associated with virgin paper and cardboard manufacture. In addition, technological advances mean there are fewer reasons not to recycle. Advanced sorting uses sensors and AI systems to facilitate more accurate segregation and processing – including de-inking that reduces contamination – processes which enhance overall recycling rates.

Indeed, the cardboard (and paper) recycling picture is a healthy one, with rates across UK businesses on the up. Around 71% of cardboard packaging was recovered through recycling in 2021. Current estimates for 2025 put this percentage at more than 74%, and it is expected that the government’s Simpler Recycling and Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) legislation both introduced in 2025, will see this figure rise higher, especially as government targets for cardboard recycling are gunning for 77% this year and 79% in 2027.

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In short, as a business, recycling your cardboard boxes and packaging ticks legislative, sustainability and community-focus boxes and is a no brainer. That doesn’t mean that it’s a pain-free process, however.

Points of pain

Contamination

While it’s fairly obvious that food, oils and other residues would be problematic, cardboard that is stored outside and gets wet can also be difficult to process by recyclers, as is waxed, laminated or heavily printed packaging.

Storage and space constraints

Can include landlord requirements, perhaps from buildings insurance policies that have not kept pace with Simpler Recycling legislation, or unrealistic or inflexible collection schedules from waste contractors.

Knowledge of compliance and changing rules

Ensuring that your workforce is educated about behaviours, attitudes and values, including Simpler Recycling legislation, as well as operational requirements for materials segregation is time-consuming and adds to operations and facilities teams’ workload.

Collection logistics

Allied with storage/space constraints, ensuring cardboard is gathered in a pre-agreed space at your workplace needs to be overseen/actively managed, jobs that take organisation and time.

Cost

How do you know, and how do you keep track of, whether recycling your cardboard is offering value for money? Poor visibility of costs and benefits is off-putting and makes the process more difficult to manage.

The Restore Recycle solution

As established, above, recycling cardboard from your business is a legal requirement that takes investment of time and money. We have years of experience, across all types and sizes of business and organisation in the UK, in scheduling and collecting a wide range of materials that are destined for shredding, destruction and recycling. We will build a schedule to keep your workplace free of clutter and fire hazards, while helping maintain your cardboard waste in the best possible condition prior to pick up, in its own waste stream.

You can trust our strong commitment to sustainability, backed by our zero-to-landfill policy and our promise to recycle all eligible pulped cardboard waste. In addition, you can keep tabs on the benefits of guaranteed recycling through your monthly online environmental report that tracks your resource savings and emissions reductions.

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