07/24/2026
Cardboard Recycling 101
After discussing plastics and metal cans, we are almost at the end of the list of acceptable recycling materials!
This week’s item is really important, but super easy.
Cardboard!
A couple of fun facts:
If you tear the material and it rips brown, it is cardboard.
Cardboard boxes are technically known as corrugated fiberboard, also called corrugated cardboard.
Yes, we are being grammatical…
And if you paid attention to Season 5, Episode 3 of Breaking Bad, you were taught how corrugated fiberboard is made.
Anywhoz…
Yes, cardboard is recyclable, but not every cardboard-looking item belongs in your blue-lidded recycling cart.
So, let’s begin with the basics.
Accepted cardboard includes:
Shipping boxes
Moving boxes
Cereal and cracker boxes
Shoe boxes
Tissue boxes
Clean cardboard packaging
Before placing cardboard in your recycling cart:
👉Empty the box
👉Remove all packing materials
👉Flatten the box
👉Keep it clean and dry
👉Place it loose in the cart
You do not need to remove tape, labels, or staples.
However comma, cardboard covered in food, grease, oil, or paint from your latest spray-painting project should go in the trash.
Okay, let us pause for one moment to clarify the most controversial rule regarding cardboard recycling.
Please read the following very slowly:
Pizza boxes are now accepted for recycling.
Remove the paper liner and the little plastic tripod thingymabobber, flatten the box, and recycle away.
And please remember: Flattening a box does not mean tossing the entire unflattened box beside the recycling bin and hoping for the best.
Flatten it.
Put it inside the cart.
Close the lid.
“But it won’t fit in my wheelie bin.”
Go get yourself a cheap box cutter (no pun intended) and slice the cardboard into approximately 2-foot-by-2-foot pieces. You would be amazed by how much cardboard you can fit inside your bin.
“I have a super lot of cardboard boxes.”
Your delivery driver hates you & you can simply break the boxes down and drop them off at one of the conveniently located yellow CARDBOARD-ONLY bins throughout the county.
And don’t be a crazy person and throw whole boxes into the cardboard bins.
Flatten them down like an above-average human and save valuable space for the next recycler behind you.
Cardboard- Only Bin Locations:
District 2 SNCO Public Works Building
1639 N. Washington Street
Auburn, KS
Monday–Friday: 7:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Household Hazardous Waste Facility
131 NE 46th Street
Topeka, KS
Monday–Thursday: 7:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Friday: 7:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Silver Lake Senior Center
404 E. Lake Street
Silver Lake, KS
Thriftway Rossville Market
551 E. US Highway 24 Trafficway
Rossville, KS
NIA Drop-Off Location
19th Street and Western Avenue
Topeka, KS
Saturday only: 10:00 a.m.–Noon
Remember:
Flatten it.
Keep it clean and dry.
Put it inside the cart, or take it to a yellow cardboard-only bin.
