Boxes For Reuse :: F.A.Q.

Empty Boxes

F.A.Q.


	F.A.Q. on Empty Boxes
	What does Empty Boxes do? Empty Boxes is a business-to-business distributor of corrugated boxes, specializing in reuse systems for corrugated cardboard. Empty Boxes provides two sustainable reuse services for companies wishing to get more lives out of their boxes: we recover surplus boxes and find new homes for those boxes. Choose to reuse – Empty Boxes can help! We are also a full-service packaging distributor – contact our experienced packaging professionals to ask about our environmentally-friendly products! My business already recycles its boxes, so why should I consider reuse? We’re happy that your business has taken steps to responsibly manage the corrugated it produces! But you may be expending unnecessary resources by hauling away perfectly reusable boxes. Reuse is a more holistic approach to managing “waste” – it’s always favorable to get as many uses out of a product as possible before sending it down the waste stream for recycling. Recycling is just one sustainable solution for excess corrugated and, by itself, has limited long-term benefits. Check out our research for more info about the benefits of reuse over recycling. What is the Empty Boxes quality control process? When we recover boxes, we inspect every individual carton that enters our warehouse – any box that doesn’t pass our quality test is sent to our recycler. Cartons are sorted by size and shape and inspected again before resale. Our facilities are neat and orderly, and our team is always available to answer any questions you have about our boxes! How do I prepare my boxes for recovery? It’s easy! Just flatten and stack your boxes; we’ll remove tape at our facility. Empty Boxes can provide on-site collection or you can ship directly to Chicago location. We recover truckloads of boxes, no less than a single skid at a time. Please contact us for additional details about packaging and shipping guidelines. My business already makes some money from recycling. What’s in it for me? In addition to the tremendous environmental benefits attributed to reuse, many of our clients find the financial benefits of our Recovery Program competitive with recycling. Empty Boxes provides this incentive because we think reuse is more valuable. Please contact us for more information.

	F.A.Q. on Packaging
	What is sustainable packaging? According to the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, sustainable packaging ought to incorporate the following criteria: Beneficial, safe and healthy for individuals and communities throughout its life cycle; Meets market criteria for performance and cost; Sourced, manufactured, transported, and recycled using renewable energy; Optimizes the use of renewable or recycled source materials’ Manufactured using clean production technologies and best practices; Made from materials healthy in all probable end-of-life scenarios; Physically designed to optimize materials and energy; and Effectively recovered and utilized in biological and/or industrial closed loop cycles. How do I find responsibly-sourced fiber? Ensuring chain-of-custody tracking systems, verifying supply chain origin, preserving endangered forests, calculating the distance fiber travels from its source to you…Sourcing socially and environmentally responsible fiber is a full-time job – that’s why we hired someone to do it for our clients! Contact us to learn how Empty Boxes can help your company source responsible fiber products! Should my business use biodegradable plastic packaging? Biodegradable plastic is an exciting innovation but ultimately misleading. Because there are very few industrial composting facilities in the United States and limited efforts to collect biodegradables from municipal waste streams for recycling, these products inevitably end up in landfills. Most landfills are closed systems not designed to facilitate biodegradation, so the product will not biodegrade. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission has criminalized use of the claim “biodegradable” for products that are commonly disposed in landfills and have started suing companies that misuse the claim. Empty Boxes strongly recommends sticking with high recycled content plastic products that are commonly recycled (PET #1 and HDPE #2) until the infrastructure necessary to properly dispose of biodegradable plastics is in place.