Where can I sell my cardboard boxes?

Dale, one of our readers, recently sent me a note, wondering if there was an opportunity for reusing cardboard boxes rather than sending them for recycling.

We asked Marty Metro, founder and CEO of a company that buys and sells used cardboard boxes nationwide, to share his thoughts.

According to Marty, your company may well be a good candidate for box reuse, if:

• You are a major manufacturer. Unfortunately, most retailers go through so many sizes and shapes of boxes that it is sometimes difficult to implement a profitable re-use program, on a large scale. Large, big-box retailers are an exception, as there is generally enough volume of a few boxes to make it worthwhile.

• You are a manufacturer of high volume items that go through a lot of boxes, so implementing a reuse program can pay off quickly.

• You receive your manufacturing inputs in corrugated cardboard shipping boxes (gaylord boxes, which have a relatively high reuse value versus recycling).

• You receive your boxes from US-based suppliers. Unfortunately, the value of foreign boxes is much less than a US-made box, and often won’t justify the cost of freight for reuse.

• You receive recurring deliveries of the same boxes. The more of the same box you get, the more likely the effort of finding those boxes a new home, will pay off.

• You receive a lot of the same size boxes. The more variety of boxes you get, the harder it is to implement a box reuse program, due to the amount of time/effort required to sort “bad boxes”.

• You are located in a geographically advantageous part of the country. Manufacturers located in or near major metropolitan cities are good candidates, because the likelihood of finding a new home in/near that city are high.

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