{"id":633,"date":"2026-10-29T14:10:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurunews.com\/blog\/?p=633"},"modified":"2026-10-29T14:10:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:10:39","slug":"what-are-the-challenges-in-carton-recycling-4761-fb3301","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kurunews.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/29\/what-are-the-challenges-in-carton-recycling-4761-fb3301\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the challenges in carton recycling?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a carton supplier who\u2019s spent the last 12 years navigating everything from small-batch local orders to national retail distribution, I\u2019ve watched carton recycling shift from a \u201cnice-to-have\u201d sustainability buzzword to a non-negotiable part of how brands build trust with their customers. But lately, I\u2019ve spent more time on calls with recycling centers, haulers, and even my own production team troubleshooting why so many of the cartons we deliver never actually make it back into a new box. It\u2019s not that people don\u2019t want to recycle\u2014far from it. The challenges here are layered, messy, and often invisible to people who just drop a box in their curbside bin. Today, I want to break down what those challenges really look like from the front lines of both supplying cartons and seeing how they move through the recycling stream. Cartons<\/a><\/p>\n

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First, let\u2019s clear up a common myth: most people think corrugated cartons are \u201ceasy\u201d to recycle, right? Corrugated (the wavy inner layer and flat liners that make up a standard shipping box) is technically recyclable, and it\u2019s one of the most recycled materials in the U.S. (the EPA says corrugated has a 92% recycling rate domestically, which is way higher than plastic\u2019s 26%). But that number hides a huge gap: that 92% only counts the corrugated that actually gets separated from other waste, not the millions of boxes that get contaminated or rejected before they even hit a recycling pulper. As a supplier, I\u2019ve seen this firsthand. A client will place an order for 5,000 custom shipping boxes for a holiday campaign, and we\u2019ll talk through every detail to make sure the boxes are sturdy, printed correctly, and sized for their products. But when I get a follow-up question a month later, it\u2019s almost always something like, \u201cWait, does this box go in the recycling or trash?\u201d That confusion at the brand level is just the start of the problem.<\/p>\n

Contamination is the biggest barrier we face, and it\u2019s not just people tossing a greasy pizza box into the bin (though that\u2019s a big one). It\u2019s small, everyday things that seem trivial, but they ruin an entire bale of cartons. Let\u2019s say a brand sends out a box with a plastic insert to protect a glass candle\u2014what most teams don\u2019t tell their customers is that the insert has to come out before recycling. If a customer tosses the whole box in the bin with the plastic still inside, that single piece of plastic can clog the pulper during recycling, and the entire batch gets rejected. Last year, one of our long-term retail clients had a 10,000-box order rejected by their local recycling center because 12% of the boxes still had tape and void fill inside. That 12% might not sound like much, but when you\u2019re baling 50,000 pounds of cartons, even a small percentage of contamination ruins the whole load. We\u2019ve started adding a 2-inch wide printed strip on every one of our commercial boxes that says \u201cRemove tape and inserts before recycling\u201d in bold text, but we can\u2019t force customers to read it. What\u2019s more, even if a customer does separate the plastic insert, that small plastic piece is often too small to be sorted at material recovery facilities (MRFs)\u2014the places that process curbside recycling\u2014and ends up getting swept into trash anyway. That\u2019s a problem that starts at the supply chain: if we as carton suppliers are designing packaging that\u2019s too reliant on mixed materials, we\u2019re setting up the recycling stream to fail before it even starts.<\/p>\n

Another underdiscussed challenge is the difference between \u201crecyclable on paper\u201d and \u201crecyclable in practice.\u201d For example, most of our food-service cartons are lined with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or low-density polyethylene (LDPE) to keep liquids from seeping through\u2014think a takeout salad box or a frozen food carton. On a material safety data sheet, that\u2019s marked as recyclable, but almost no curbside programs accept these lined cartons. MRFs can\u2019t easily separate the plastic liner from the paper, so these cartons get pulled out and sent to landfill. As a supplier, we\u2019ve had to make tough choices here. A client in the frozen food space came to us two years ago asking for fully recyclable frozen cartons, and when we tested lined cartons with the local recycling hauler, they were rejected. We ended up switching to a water-based coating instead of plastic, but that added 15% to the cost of each box, and some of our smaller clients couldn\u2019t absorb that price increase. It\u2019s a catch-22: we want to supply sustainable cartons, but if those cartons don\u2019t actually get recycled, they\u2019re just greenwashing for brands. And it\u2019s not just food cartons\u2014custom printed boxes, which are a huge part of our business, often use water-based inks that are technically fine for recycling, but some MRFs still reject boxes with dark or glossy prints because the ink can discolor the pulp during processing. We\u2019ve worked with a third-party lab to test a new soy-based ink that\u2019s MRF-compliant, but again, that adds cost, and not all our clients want to pass that on to their customers.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the issue of mixed paper streams, which is something I\u2019ve seen get worse as e-commerce booms. Ten years ago, most of the cartons we supplied were for retail store shipments, which were usually part of a consistent, large bale of corrugated that recycling centers could process easily. Today, 60% of our orders are for e-commerce brands, which means the boxes go through a lot more handling, and they often end up in bins with all kinds of other paper: receipts, junk mail, paper towels, even dirty napkins. Corrugated is denser than a lot of other paper products, so MRFs use air separators to sort it, but if there\u2019s too much lightweight paper (like junk mail) mixed in, the air separator can\u2019t tell the difference, and the corrugated gets lost. Last quarter, we supplied an e-commerce brand with 20,000 shipping boxes, and their recycling center reported that only 78% of the boxes were successfully recycled\u2014down from the 91% the same brand had with a different supplier two years earlier. The difference? The new boxes were smaller, lighter, and mixed with more junk mail in the customer\u2019s curbside bin. E-commerce growth has been a huge win for our business, but it\u2019s put unprecedented strain on a recycling system that was built for a different kind of packaging.<\/p>\n

We also can\u2019t talk about carton recycling challenges without mentioning infrastructure gaps. Even if a brand uses 100% clean, unlined corrugated, and a customer separates all tape and inserts, that box only gets recycled if there\u2019s a MRF nearby that accepts corrugated, and a recycling hauler that will pick it up. Rural areas are the worst here. I\u2019ve had clients in small towns in the Midwest tell me their only option for recycling corrugated is to drive 45 minutes to the nearest grocery store drop-off bin. That\u2019s a burden for customers, and it means a lot of those boxes end up in the trash. Even in urban areas, MRFs are struggling to keep up with the volume of recyclable material. The American Forest & Paper Association says that MRFs process 50 million tons of paper and paperboard each year, but many of them are outdated, with equipment that can\u2019t sort new, lightweight corrugated or mixed materials. As a supplier, we\u2019ve tried to work with local governments to set up bulk corrugated drop-off points near our clients\u2019 warehouses, but funding for those programs is inconsistent. One city we work with stopped its bulk recycling program last year because of budget cuts, and suddenly, 30% of our client\u2019s boxes were no longer being recycled. It\u2019s not a problem that any one company can solve alone, but as a carton supplier, we\u2019re stuck between the need to supply packaging that works for brands and the need to support a recycling system that can actually process it.<\/p>\n

Another angle I don\u2019t see talked about enough is the lack of standardization. Right now, there\u2019s no universal label for carton recycling. One brand might put a \u201cchasing arrows\u201d symbol on their box, which means it\u2019s recyclable in general. Another might put \u201ccorrugated only\u201d to mean remove all inserts. A third might put \u201crecycle with plastic bags\u201d even though that\u2019s a bad idea for MRFs. Customers are confused, and even most small business owners can\u2019t keep up with the different rules for every local recycling program. As a supplier, we\u2019ve worked to create a standardized label for our boxes that\u2019s clear: a corrugated box icon with text that says \u201cRemove all plastic\/foam inserts and tape before recycling; check local rules for drop-off.\u201d But without industry-wide adoption, customers still see different labels and don\u2019t know what to do. The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has pushed for a universal label, but it\u2019s slow going, especially with so many small suppliers and brands that can\u2019t afford to reprint all their packaging.<\/p>\n

I want to be clear: this isn\u2019t a complaint about recycling, and it\u2019s not a reason to give up on cartons as a sustainable packaging option. Corrugated is still one of the best packaging materials we have\u2014it\u2019s renewable, it\u2019s reusable (many businesses use the same shipping box multiple times), and when it\u2019s recycled, it makes new boxes, not just low-grade paper. But the challenges here are real, and they require collaboration across the entire supply chain: brands, suppliers, recycling centers, and customers.<\/p>\n

As a carton supplier, we\u2019re doing our part. We\u2019ve invested in new production equipment that lets us make cartons with 100% post-consumer recycled content, without sacrificing strength. We\u2019ve partnered with a non-profit that provides free recycling education to small e-commerce brands, teaching them how to design packaging that\u2019s easy to recycle and how to communicate that to their customers. We\u2019ve also expanded our recycled content options, so brands can choose how much post-consumer material they want in their boxes, without paying a premium.<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re a brand owner, operations manager, or anyone looking to make your packaging more sustainable, I know how overwhelming it can be. The space is full of jargon, and every supplier has their own \u201csustainable\u201d claims that don\u2019t always line up with reality. That\u2019s why we make ourselves available to talk through your specific needs: whether you\u2019re a small business just starting out, a large retail brand with bulk orders, or an e-commerce company trying to navigate the chaos of shipping and recycling. We can help you design cartons that work for your products, your budget, and the recycling stream, so your packaging doesn\u2019t end up in a landfill. If you\u2019d like to chat about how we can partner on your next order, feel free to reach out to our team to discuss your specific needs.<\/p>\n

Recycled Paper Packaging<\/a> References
\nU.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2023). Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures.
\nAmerican Forest & Paper Association. (2022). Corrugated Recycling Industry Report.
\nSustainable Packaging Coalition. (2023). Common Recycling Labeling Standards for Packaging.
\nNational Waste and Recycling Association. (2023). E-Commerce Packaging and Recycling Infrastructure Study.<\/p>\n

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Dongguang K.B.D Pulp Mould Package Products Co., Ltd.<\/a>
We are one of the most experienced cartons manufacturers and suppliers in China, specialized in providing high quality products and service. Please feel free to buy bulk customized cartons from our factory. For quotation and free sample, contact us now.
Address: No.4 Caimei 1st Road, Longjiantian Country, Huangjiang Town, Dongguan, China
E-mail: Kevin.wang@kbd.com.cn
WebSite: https:\/\/www.kbd-pack.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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