If you’ve just moved house or taken your belongings out of self-storage, you’ve probably got a lot of extra boxes on your hands.
When you move house with Andrew Porter Limited, all the standard removals packaging you will need is provided for you free of charge. This includes strong cardboard boxes, wardrobe cartons with a rail to hang your clothes on and packing paper to protect fragile items. Other items like mattress and sofa covers are also available for a small charge.
So what should you do with your boxes and packaging once you’ve unpacked? Most local authorities collect paper and cardboard for recycling but around seven million tonnes of it is still sent to landfill in the UK each year.
March 18 is Global Recycling Day so we’re looking at some of the ways you can give your boxes and packaging a new lease of life.
One of the most effective ways of making sure your boxes and packaging aren’t wasted is to offer them to someone else who is planning to move house or put their things into storage. If you don’t know anyone who needs them, offer them on a local community group or a site like Freecycle. Passing them on to someone else means you don’t have to worry about disposing of them yourself and you get the benefit of knowing you have made someone else’s life easier.
If you used any plastic covers to protect your sofa or mattresses while you moved or to keep them safe while in storage, keep them handy for when you redecorate your home. Plastic covers are great for protecting your room while painting or having repairs and keeping your furniture free from dust and paint splashes. It means you don't need to worry about moving large furniture out of the room being worked on. Cardboard is also a thicker and more effective way of covering your floor than using newspaper so you may want to flatten some of your extra boxes to protect your carpet or flooring while you give your home a makeover.
Sites like Pinterest are full of creative ideas of things you can do with cardboard, from turning boxes into a playhouse for your children to upcycling them to make storage boxes you’d be happy to have around your home. You could also cut some up for craft projects.
If you have any boxes which are ripped, damaged or unusable, you could shred them and add them to your compost bin. Cardboard breaks down well if it is mixed in with food waste like greens and, as it is rich in carbon, it creates a compost which is effective at suppressing weeds and can help improve the quality of your soil. Remember to remove any packaging tape before you add your cardboard to your compost bin though as the tape will not break down and could be harmful to local wildlife. Some gardeners use cardboard to line their planters and help retain water and shredded cardboard can also be used as mulch.
The polystyrene chips Andrew Porter provide to their removals customers are eco-friendly and biodegradable. But there are ways you can reuse them when you no longer need them to protect your treasures. You could add them to the bottom of plant pots for drainage as a lighter alternative to pebbles or gravel. They can also be a useful insulation material in a shed, garage or greenhouse. Bubble wrap is useful for lining the sides of plant pots to protect plants from frost. Another use for spare bubble wrap is to cover your car windshield in winter so it doesn’t ice over. It is also a good idea to keep some bubble wrap handy for sending things in the post.
If you really can’t find a new home or use for your cardboard boxes, don’t chuck them in the normal bin, make sure they go to your local recycling centre. Cardboard is easier to recycle than to make from scratch and it means your old boxes may come back as something completely different.
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