Cardboard is a generic term for heavypaper-based products whose construction can range from a thickpaper known aspaperboard tocorrugated fiberboard, made of multipleplies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light brown in color, depending on the specific product; dyes,pigments, printing, and coatings are available.
The wordcardboard has general use in English and French,[1][2] but the term is deprecated in commerce and industry as not adequately defining a specific product.[3] Material producers, container manufacturers,[4]packaging engineers,[5] andstandards organizations,[6] use more specific terminology.
In 2020, the United States hit a record high in its yearly use of cardboard. Over 120 billion pieces were used that year, with around 80 percent of all the products sold in the United States being packaged in cardboard.[7] In the same year, over 13,000 separate pieces of consumer cardboard packaging were thrown away by American households[clarification needed], combined with all paper products, and this constitutes almost 42 percent of all solid waste generated by the United States annually. In an effort to reduce this environmental impact, many households have started repurposing cardboard boxes for eco-friendly purposes.
However, despite the sheer magnitude of paper waste, the vast majority of it is composed of one of the most successful and sustainable packaging materials of modern times:corrugated cardboard, known industrially ascorrugated fiberboard.[8]
Outside traditional recycling, many artists reuse cardboard as an affordable way to produce art.[9]Pablo Picasso used cardboard to create his firstcubist guitar, later remaking the sculpture in sheet metal.[10] Other artists likeTom Sachs andMonami Ohno make their finished sculptures out of cardboard, making the material itself a highlight of the work.[11][12]
Playing cards, which require a very rigid single sheet with high surface durability and printability
Paperboard is a paper-based material, usually more than about ten mils (0.010 inches (0.25 mm)) thick. It is often used for foldingcartons, set-up boxes, cardedpackaging,etc. Configurations of paperboard include:
Corrugated fiberboard is a combination of paperboards, usually two flat liners and one inner fluted corrugated medium. It is often used for making corrugated boxes for shipping or storing products. This type of cardboard is also used by artists as original material for sculpting.[14]
Most types of cardboard arerecyclable. Boards that are laminates, wax coated, or treated forwet-strength are often more difficult to recycle. Clean cardboard (i.e., cardboard that has not been subject to chemical coatings) "is usually worth recovering, although often the difference between the value it realizes and the cost of recovery is marginal".[15] Cardboard can be recycled for industrial or domestic use. For example, cardboard may be composted or shredded for animal bedding.[16]
The termcardboard has been used since at least 1848, whenAnne Brontë mentioned it in her novelThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall.[17] TheKellogg brothers first used paperboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later, when they began marketing it to the general public, a heat-sealed bag ofwax paper was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This development marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box. The Kieckhefer Container Company, run byJohn W. Kieckhefer, was another early American packaging industry pioneer. It excelled in the use of fiber shipping containers, particularly the paper milk carton.
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