Corrugated boxes are commonly referred to as'card boxes'and serve as the back bone of the shipping and packing industry.These boxes are light weight and at the same time can withstand damages from shock,vibrations and other type of impairments that may occur during shipping or moving.Corrugated boxes are available in varying thicknesses so that the consumers can carefully select them according to their needs.These boxes gain the strength and stability from the liners and the fluting boards,which are also the basic elements of their construction.The fluting board acts as a shock absorber and helps the box in withstanding the shocks.Corrugated Boxes form the largest recycled material according to the recyclers.During the recycling process,corrugated boxes are separated from paper by recyclers because different grades of material are produced by paper mills based on the material that is recovered.
Due to the widespread usage of corrugated boxes in almost all the industries,they are manufactured in large quantities.It is essential that these boxes are recycled so that they can be reused again and be environment friendly.There are several steps involved in the recycling of these card board boxes each of which is explained below.
Making pulp:
The recycling centers and the related business will collect these corrugated boxes,and then these boxes will be sorted and baled.Later,they are sent to the paper mills where the opened bales are processed under a repulper and it will be filled with water.These repulpers will agitate in the boxes until they are turned into fiber slurry.
Removing the contaminants:
When these boxes go through the repupler there will be a rope which will be hanging in the center of the repulper.The rope serves to remove contaminants such as tapes and strings.Then the fiber slurry will go through another machine which will remove materials such as metals which falls through the bottom and plastic floating on the top will be removed.
Converting the pulp into paper:
The cleaned pulp is passed through the paper machine where the extra water from the pulp will be removed by moving through a screen;a fiber mat will be formed from this pulp.This fiber mat moves through the rollers where the excess water will be squeezed out.Then this material will be heated before it is made to pass through spools where they will be wound.Next,the material will be rewound into rolls and later shipped to the box manufacturers.The recycling process is now complete.
Manufacturing of new boxes:
The box manufacturers can use this recycled paper to manufacture the liners and the fluting medium for new corrugated boxes.The fluting medium will be sandwiched between the liners;the number of fluting mediums and the liners will determine the thickness of the corrugated boxes.The manufacturers can use 100 percent recycled paper for manufacturing the liners of the corrugated boxes,but in most cases the liners contain only 35 percent of the recycled content.
