How to deal with excess cardboard after Christmas

The Christmas period is one of the busiest, and waste-heaviest, times of the year for many businesses. Thanks to increased stock deliveries, seasonal packaging, product returns, and online fulfilment, many commercial premises find themselves overwhelmed with cardboard waste. It’s vital that you stay on top of your Christmas cardboard disposal and cardboard recycling to keep your operations running smoothly throughout the festive period.

Below, we outline some practical ways that your business can reduce its environmental impact, stay compliant with regulations, and keep your site clear of excess festive packaging.

1) Ensure your team are trained in correct recycling procedures

It’s important that your staff understand how to handle, store, and sort your cardboard for recycling. You can support this by:

• Providing clear internal signage to help your staff identify the correct recycling streams.
• Sharing simple step-by-step instructions so that everyone knows how to flatten boxes and separate materials.
• Holding short refresher briefings to reduce contamination and keep waste areas tidy.
• Training your team to identify contaminants so that you can process your festive waste more efficiently and avoid unnecessary disposal costs.

2) Correctly prepare your cardboard for recycling

Proper preparation is key to keeping your business compliant and your waste management costs low throughout the festive period. Here’s what you should do with your cardboard after it’s been used:

• Flatten your cardboard boxes to ensure maximum bin capacity. If your site is on the larger side, you might want to hire a baler to compress your cardboard into compact, easy-to-handle bales.
• Remove contaminants like plastic straps, film, foam inserts, void fill, laminate coatings, and excessive tape from your cardboard. Clean cardboard that’s free from contaminants has a much higher recycling value.
• Keep your cardboard dry by storing it under cover or in a dry waste area. Wet or food-soiled cardboard can’t be recycled, so make sure it’s stored under a designated shelter.

3) Reuse cardboard within your business operations

Reusing your cardboard will help to reduce the amount of waste your facility produces and lower your operational costs. Here are some ways you can reuse cardboard within other areas of your business:

• If you’re a retailer or online seller, consider reusing your delivery boxes for customer returns or internal transfers.
• Warehouses and stockrooms can use sturdy boxes for storage and organisation to help manage overflow stock during peak festive trading periods.
• Boxes can also be repurposed for internal logistics, allowing you to easily move goods between different departments or sites.

4) Plan ahead with seasonal cardboard recycling services

It’s easy to underestimate how much cardboard waste you’ll produce over Christmas. To avoid overflowing bins or skips, consider implementing the following:

• Temporarily increase your collection frequency to empty your waste containers more often.
• Upgrade to larger wheelie bins or use additional recycling containers so you have more space to house your cardboard waste.
• Hire dedicated cardboard-only bins to cut down on the time you need to spend sorting your waste.
• Hire an on-site compactor or baler if your premises is on the larger side to streamline your operations.

5) Partner with McCarthy Marland

Our expert team at McCarthy Marland are here to support your business with tailored cardboard recycling solutions throughout the festive season. We offer a range of skips, RoRo containers, recycling and recovery wheelie bins, and static and portable compaction balers for all your Christmas cardboard disposal needs. 

We’ll deliver your container directly to your site and collect it as often as needed to suit your schedule. Once we’ve collected your cardboard, we’ll take it back to one of our recycling centres for processing and recover as much recyclable content as possible. We’re proud to achieve an average recycling rate of 95% across all four of our facilities, ensuring as little waste is sent to landfill as possible.

Get in touch to discover how we can help with your cardboard recycling post-Christmas.

FAQs

Can businesses recycle all types of cardboard packaging generated at Christmas?

Most commercial cardboard is recyclable, but waxed, laminated, or heavily contaminated materials can cause issues during the recycling process. Ensure that you separate materials early on to help avoid contamination and keep your recycling streams clear.

Should businesses remove staples, tape, and labels before recycling boxes?

Yes, we recommend removing tape and large labels before recycling your boxes. This helps to improve the quality and value of recyclable cardboard, and ensures smoother processing at recycling facilities. However, it’s fine to leave small staples or labels on your boxes.

How can businesses prevent cardboard bins from overflowing during the Christmas season?

Overflowing bins are usually a sign that your waste output has increased beyond your existing service capacity. Increasing your collection frequency, upgrading to larger containers, or adding temporary additional bins can help you stay on top of the surge.