Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper products. Their construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard, made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light brown in color, depending on the specific product; dyes, pigments, printing, and coatings are available.
The word cardboard has general use in English and French,[Walter Soroka, Illustrated Glossary of Packaging Terminology, p. 154.] Material producers, container manufacturers,[
]
and standards organizations,[
] use more specific terminology.
Usage statistics
In 2020, the United States hit a record high in its yearly use of cardboard. Over 120 billion pieces were used that year, with around 80 percent of all the products sold in the United States being packaged in cardboard.
In the same year, over 13,000 separate pieces of consumer cardboard packaging were thrown away by American households, combined with all paper products, and this constitutes almost 42 percent of all solid waste generated by the United States annually. In an effort to reduce this environmental impact, many households have started repurposing cardboard boxes for eco-friendly purposes.
However, despite the sheer magnitude of paper waste, the vast majority of it is composed of one of the most successful and sustainable packaging materials of modern times - corrugated cardboard, known industrially as corrugated fiberboard.
Types
Various card stocks
Various types of cards are available, which may be called
cardboard. Included are: thick paper (of various types) or pasteboard used for
,
,
,
playing cards, catalog covers, binder's board for
bookbinding,
scrapbooking, and other uses which require higher durability than regular
paper.
Paperboard
Paperboard is a paper-based material, usually more than about ten mils () thick. It is often used for folding
, set-up boxes, carded
packaging,
etc. Configurations of paperboard include:
-
Containerboard, used in the production of corrugated fiberboard.
-
Folding boxboard, comprising multiple layers of chemical and mechanical pulp.
-
Solid bleached board, made purely from bleached chemical pulp and usually has a mineral or synthetic pigment.
-
Solid unbleached board, typically made of unbleached chemical pulp.
-
White lined chipboard, typically made from layers of Paper recycling or Recycling , most often with two to three layers of coated paper on the top and one layer on the reverse side. Because of its Recycling content it will be grey from the inside.
-
Binder's board, a paperboard used in bookbinding for making .
Currently, materials falling under these names may be made without using any actual paper.
Corrugated fiberboard
Corrugated fiberboard is a combination of paperboards, usually two flat liners and one inner fluted corrugated medium. It is often used for making corrugated boxes for shipping or storing products. This type of cardboard is also used by artists as original material for sculpting.
Recycling
Most types of cardboard are
Recycling. Boards that are laminates, wax coated, or treated for
wet strength are often more difficult to recycle. Clean cardboard (
i.e., cardboard that has not been subject to chemical coatings) "is usually worth recovering, although often the difference between the value it realizes and the cost of recovery is marginal".
[AGR Manser, Alan Keeling, Practical Handbook of Processing and Recycling Municipal Waste (1996), p. 298, 8.1.2.] Cardboard can be recycled for industrial or domestic use. For example, cardboard may be composted or shredded for animal bedding.
[Nicky Scott, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: An Easy Household Guide (2007), p. 31.]
History
The term
cardboard has been used since at least 1848, when Anne Brontë mentioned it in her novel
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
The
Kellogg Company brothers first used paperboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later, when they began marketing it to the general public, a heat-sealed bag of
wax paper was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This development marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box. The Kieckhefer Container Company, run by John W. Kieckhefer, was another early American packaging industry pioneer. It excelled in the use of fiber shipping containers, particularly the paper milk carton.
Examples of different end use
File:Aloha nui cook.jpg|A postcard from 1908
File:NRC Honors Montgomery County Science Fair Students in Rockville, Md. (13537087363).jpg|Posters and display boards at science fair
File:Die Oberlausitz - Exemplarisches Muster eines Nachschlagewerkes aus Inhalten der Wikipedia (Fokus auf die Bindung).JPG|Hardcover book
File:Blue-punch-card-front-horiz.png|Punch card, early digital storage
File:Arsexpo- Passe-partout.jpg|Mat used for framing picture
File:Archief Kruisherenklooster Maastricht (RHCL)-2.jpg|Corrugated box used for storage of archives
File:Carmin Hotel *** - vizitka.jpg|Business cards
File:Rotolini.jpg|Fiber tubes for roll of paper
File:Puzzle.jpg|Paperboard jigsaw puzzle
See also
