Global Recycling Day was established in 2018 to raise awareness of the necessity of recycling
in conserving our valuable natural resources and ensuring the planet’s future. It is a day for the
entire world to unite and prioritize the planet. Global Recycling Day has two primary goals:
- To persuade world leaders that recycling is far too essential to be treated as a national
issue and that a coordinated, global approach to recycling is urgently required. - To invoke thought among individuals to think resource and not waste, when it comes to
the commodities they come into contact with – until this happens, we won’t be able to
give recycled goods the genuine value and repurposing they deserve.
Here’s where EmptyBox enters the loop. Our mission is to promote the reuse of cardboard
packaging in a circular fashion. Cardboard is a biodegradable substance that degrades more
quickly than plastics, resulting in a low environmental effect. However, if cardboard is not
properly recycled, it emits methane, which contributes to the current greenhouse gas problem; it
is clear that cardboard producers are under pressure, especially during the current rush of
events.
So recycling is an option right? While a single cardboard box can be recycled up to 7 times, the
process involves a tremendous amount of resources in transportation, water to turn it back into
pulp, the manufacturing process, and transporting to distributors. For many years the US
shipped large bales of OCC (old corrugated cardboard) to China, in 2017 they stopped
accepting those bales and more cardboard has been going into landfills. However, a box can
be used and reused for years. EmptyBox’a mission is to promote reuse through community
reuse stations and a peer to peer messaging application which is all in the works!
Therefore for Global Recycling Day, we encourage you to reuse your cardboard boxes as much
as possible if not donate them!