Cardboard

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.{{Cite web |last=US EPA |first=OLEM |date=2017-09-07 |title=Containers and Packaging: Product-Specific Data |url=https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/containers-and-packaging-product-specific |access-date=2022-04-04 |website=www.epa.gov |language=en}} 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.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/magazine/cardboard-international-paper.html | title=Where Does All the Cardboard Come From? I Had to Know | work=The New York Times | date=28 November 2022 | last1=Shaer | first1=Matthew }}

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Various types of cards are available, which may be called cardboard. Included are: thick paper (of various types) or pasteboard used for business cards, aperture cards, postcards, playing cards, catalog covers, binder's board for bookbinding, scrapbooking, and other uses which require higher durability than regular paper.

{{Main|Paperboard}}

File:A studio image of a hand of playing cards. MOD 45148377.jpg

Paperboard is a paper-based material, usually more than about ten mils ({{convert|0.010|in|mm|2}}) thick. It is often used for folding cartons, 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 waste paper or recycled fibers, most often with two to three layers of coating on the top and one layer on the reverse side. Because of its recycled content it will be grey from the inside.
• Binder's board, a paperboard used in bookbinding for making hardcovers.

Currently, materials falling under these names may be made without using any actual paper.{{Cite web |last=Mani |first=Karthik |date=May 10, 2023 |title=5 ways Cardboard Safety Matches are used in Business |url=https://quenker.com/5-ways-cardboard-safety-matches-are-used-in-business/ |website=www.quenker.com}}

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{{Main|Corrugated fiberboard}}

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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.{{cite web|url=http://www.langanart.com/|title=Langan Art|first=Langan|last=Art|website=Langan Art}}

Most types of cardboard are recyclable. 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.

Cardboard was first made in France, in 1751, by a pupil of René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, and was used to reinforce playing cards.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} The term cardboard has been used since at least 1848, when Anne Brontë mentioned it in her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.{{Cite OED | term=cardboard | id=27839}} The Kellogg 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.

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

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• Cardboard box
• Cardboard furniture
• Carton
• Corrugated box design
• Folding carton
• Juicebox (container)
• Paperboard

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Category:Paper products