How to recycle moving boxes after your move ?

When you’ve finished unpacking your belongings, you’re often left with a large number of cardboard boxes. But what is the most environmentally responsible way to deal with them?

Recycling moving boxes correctly is an important part of an eco-friendly move, helping reduce waste, conserve resources and keep corrugated cardboard in circulation for future use.

This guide explains what happens to cardboard after recycling, how to prepare your boxes properly, and how to reuse or recycle them efficiently after your move.

What happens to cardboard when it’s recycled?

Our moving boxes are made from recyclable corrugated cardboard. Once placed in household recycling, cardboard typically follows this process:

1. Collection and sorting

Cardboard is collected by your local authority recycling services and taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). Here, materials are sorted and processed for recycling.

2. Shredding and pulping

Clean cardboard is shredded and mixed with water to create a pulp. This breaks down the fibres into reusable raw material.

3. De-inking and cleaning

The pulp is filtered and cleaned to remove inks, adhesives, and remaining impurities.

4. Reprocessing into new paper products

The cleaned fibre is pressed, dried and rolled into large sheets, which are then used to manufacture:

• New cardboard boxes
• Packing materials
• Paper products

Corrugated cardboard can typically be recycled 5-7 times before the fibres become too short to reuse.

Preparing moving boxes for recycling

To ensure your boxes are properly processed, you will need to:

Flatten all cartons

Break down your cartons using our Eco Box Cutter, so they take up less space and are easier to collect and process.

Remove any contamination

If you have used Pickfords Eco Box Shop packing materials, this step is already simplified, as all cartons and packing components are designed to be recyclable.

For any additional or external materials used during the move, check and remove:

• Plastic packaging
• Foam inserts
• Non-paper tape

Keeping boxes as clean as possible helps ensure they can be efficiently processed through standard recycling systems without additional sourcing or rejection.

Keep cardboard dry and clean

Wet or food-contaminated cardboard may not be recyclable and could be rejected.

Separate bulky loads if needed

Large quantities of boxes may need to be taken to a local recycling centre rather than going in your standard household bins.

Recycling moving boxes correctly is a simple but important step in reducing the environmental impact of your move. Corrugated cardboard is highly recyclable and can be reused multiple times if handled correctly.

Choose recyclable cartons from the start and help make your entire move process more sustainable.

Shop Eco Box Shop moving boxes online and ensure an eco-friendly move from the beginning.