You can never underestimate the utility of a cardboard box. Children love them, adults have plenty of uses for them. After a big move, most people find themselves overrun with their leftover, gently-used cardboard boxes.
Here are six ways to reuse or re-purpose them, so they don’t just end up back in a landfill.
1. Organized Storage
Most people already make use of cardboard shipping boxes to store their belongings. Since items can be categorized based on use or season, the cardboard box can be labeled for easy identification, so you can retrieve things quickly. This way if you have things you don’t want to throw away, but don’t want hanging around, you can put them away for the season, or until you need them.
2. Chemical Waste Bins
With the addition of a plastic liner, small to medium sized boxes can be reused as trash cans. Since most chemical packaging such as paint and industrial cleaners, will leave spots and stains on your shelves or the floor of your garage, boxes add one more layer of protection to keep your garage nice and clean.
3. Composting
Cardboard is fully biodegradable. After letting your compost’s microbes chew on the cardboard for a few months, it can easily be turned into a great addition to the soil in your lawn or garden.
4. Mailing Packages
If the cardboard is not heavily used, it can easily be reused to send gifts to faraway friends and relatives during the holidays. Even if the box has some blemishes or small defects, usually packing tape can cover it up and make it good as new.
By reusing cardboard in one of these four ways, you help keep it out of landfills and reduce your carbon footprint. We’re all struggling to survive on this planet, so we each need to do our part to protect it as much as we can.
