Plastic vs Cardboard Containers: Pros and Cons

Cardboard Box

Corrugated shipping container, one type of cardboard box
Type	Container
Inventor	Robert Gair
Inception	1890; 135 years ago (1890)
Manufacturer	Various
Available	Globally

Cardboard boxes are industrially prefabricated boxes, primarily used for packaging goods and materials. Specialists in industry seldom use the term cardboard because it does not denote a specific material.^[1][2] The term cardboard may refer to a variety of heavy paper-like materials, including card stock, corrugated fiberboard,^[3] and paperboard.^[4] Cardboard boxes can be readily recycled.

Several types of containers are sometimes called cardboard boxes:

• 
  Paperboard carton or box
• 
  Corrugated box
• 
  Drink box
• 
  Gable-top carton made of liquid packaging board
• 
  Set-up box made of rigid paperboard

In business and industry, material producers, container manufacturers,^[5] packaging engineers,^[6] and standards organizations,^[7] try to use more specific terminology. There is still not complete and uniform usage. Often the term "cardboard" is avoided because it does not define any particular material.

Broad divisions of paper-based packaging materials are:

• Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags, or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets.
• Paperboard, sometimes known as cardboard, is generally thicker (usually over 0.25 mm or 10 points) than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight (grammage) above 224 g/m², but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single- or multi-ply.
• Corrugated fiberboard sometimes known as corrugated board or corrugated cardboard, is a combined paper-based material consisting of a fluted corrugated medium and one or two flat liner boards. The flute gives corrugated boxes much of their strength and is a contributing factor for why corrugated fiberboard is commonly used for shipping and storage.^[8]

There are also multiple names for containers:

• A shipping container made of corrugated fiberboard is sometimes called a "cardboard box", a "carton", or a "case". There are many options for corrugated box design. Shipping container is used in shipping and transporting goods due to its strength and durability, thus corrugated boxes are designed to withstand the rigors of transportation and handling.
• A folding carton made of paperboard is sometimes called a "cardboard box". Commonly used for packaging consumer goods, such as cereals, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. These cartons are designed to fold flat when empty, saving space during storage and transport.
• A set-up box is made of a non-bending grade of paperboard and is sometimes called a "cardboard box". Often used for high-end products, such as jewelry, electronics, or gift items. Unlike folding cartons, set-up boxes do not fold flat and are delivered fully constructed.
• Drink boxes made of paperboard laminates, are sometimes called "cardboard boxes", "cartons", or "boxes". Widely used for packaging beverages like juice, milk, and wine. These cartons are designed to maintain the freshness of liquid products and are often used in aseptic packaging.

The first commercial paperboard (not corrugated) box is sometimes credited to the firm M. Treverton & Son^[9] in England in 1817.^[10][11][12] Cardboard box packaging was made the same year in Germany.^[13]

The Scottish-born Robert Gair invented the pre-cut cardboard or paperboard box in 1890 – flat pieces manufactured in bulk that folded into boxes. Gair's invention came about as a result of an accident: he was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s, and one day, while he was printing an order of seed bags, a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut them. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing in one operation he could make prefabricated paperboard boxes. Applying this idea to corrugated boxboard was a straightforward development when the material became available around the turn of the twentieth century.^[14]

Cardboard boxes were developed in France about 1840 for transporting the Bombyx mori moth and its eggs by silk manufacturers, and for more than a century the manufacture of cardboard boxes was a major industry in the Valréas area.^[15][16]

The advent of lightweight flaked cereals increased the use of cardboard boxes. The first to use cardboard boxes as cereal cartons was the Kellogg Company.

Corrugated (also called pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856, and used as a liner for tall hats, but corrugated boxboard was not patented and used as a shipping material until 20 December 1871. The patent was issued to Albert Jones of New York City for single-sided (single-face) corrugated board.^[17] Jones used the corrugated board for wrapping bottles and glass lantern chimneys. The first machine for producing large quantities of corrugated board was built in 1874 by G. Smyth, and in the same year Oliver Long improved upon Jones's design by inventing corrugated board with liner sheets on both sides.^[18] This was corrugated cardboard as we know it today.

The first corrugated cardboard box manufactured in the US was in 1895.^[19] By the early 1900s, wooden crates and boxes were being replaced by corrugated paper shipping cartons.

By 1908, the terms "corrugated paper-board" and "corrugated cardboard" were both in use in the paper trade.^[20]

Cardboard and other paper-based materials (paperboard, corrugated fiberboard, etc.) can have a post-primary life as a cheap material for the construction of a range of projects, among them being science experiments, children's toys, costumes, or insulative lining. Some children enjoy playing inside boxes.

A common cliché is that, if presented with a large and expensive new toy, a child will quickly become bored with the toy and play with the box instead. Although this is usually said somewhat jokingly, children certainly enjoy playing with boxes, using their imagination to portray the box as an infinite variety of objects. One example of this in popular culture is from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, whose protagonist, Calvin, often imagined a cardboard box as a "transmogrifier", a "duplicator", or a time machine.

So prevalent is the cardboard box's reputation as a plaything that in 2005 a cardboard box was added to the National Toy Hall of Fame in the US,^[21] one of very few non-brand-specific toys to be honoured with inclusion. As a result, a toy "house" (actually a log cabin) made from a large cardboard box was added to the Hall, housed at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

The Metal Gear series of stealth video games has a running gag involving a cardboard box as an in-game item, which can be used by the player to try to sneak through places without getting caught by enemy sentries.

Living in a cardboard box is stereotypically associated with homelessness.^[22] However, in 2005, Melbourne architect Peter Ryan designed a house composed largely of cardboard.^[23] More common are small seatings or little tables made from corrugated cardboard. Merchandise displays made of cardboard are often found in self-service shops.

Mass and viscosity of the enclosed air help together with the limited stiffness of boxes to absorb the energy of oncoming objects. In 2012, British stuntman Gary Connery safely landed via wingsuit without deploying his parachute, landing on a 3.6-metre (12 ft) high crushable "runway" (landing zone) built with thousands of cardboard boxes.^[24]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cardboard boxes.

• Banana box, a type of cardboard box designed for transportation of bananas
• Eurocontainer, a system for boxes that can be used for reusable packaging for transport and storage
• The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (a Sherlock Holmes story)

A bulk box, also known as a bulk bin, skid box, pallet box, bin box, gaylord, or octabin, is a pallet-size box used for storage and shipping of bulk or packaged goods.^[1] Bulk boxes can be designed to hold many different types of items such as plastic pellets, watermelons, electronic components, and even liquids; some bulk boxes are stackable.

In the U.S. and Canada, the term gaylord is sometimes used for triplewall corrugated pallet boxes; this is due to the first bulk bins being manufactured by the original Gaylord Container Company of St. Louis,^[2] which was acquired by Crown Zellerbach of San Francisco in 1955.^[3][4]

Bulk boxes are often made of corrugated fiberboard, either doublewall or triplewall. Many corrugated bulk boxes have covers.^[2] The main body of some is similar to a half slotted container with flaps on the bottom; others have a separate base (similar to the cover) and a sleeve for side walls. Additional corrugated liners and box reinforcement are sometimes used to control bulging.^[5][6]

Wooden boxes are also used for bulk packaging; boxes made of aluminum and steel are common in heavy industry. Reusable plastic totes (molded or corrugated plastic) are used for some products and logistics chains.

For some products, inner plastic liners or bin bags are used to protect the contents. Sealed inner bags with integral valves are sometimes used for liquids. Most bulk boxes are recyclable, returnable, or reusable. Some styles of boxes fold (knock down) or come apart for easier return shipments.

Bulk boxes are used for loose parts, mixed small containers, granular materials, powders, liquids, etc. Use in industry is common: shipping and storage of bulk intermediate materials prior to further processing or packaging. They are sometimes used to collect and ship materials for recycling and waste.

When used to ship hazardous waste or dangerous goods, box construction and use are highly regulated.

• D5168 Standard Practice for Fabrication and Closure of Triple-wall Corrugated Containers
• D6179 Standard Test Methods for Rough Handling of Unitized Loads and Large Shipping Cases and Crates
• D6251 Standard Specification for Wood-Cleated Panelboard Shipping Boxes
• D6254 Standard Specification for Wirebound Pallet-Type Wood Boxes
• D6256 Standard Specification for Wood-Cleated Shipping Boxes and Skidded, Load-Bearing Bases
• D6573 Standard Specification for General Purpose Wirebound Shipping Boxes
• D6880-05 Standard Specification for wooden boxes

• Corrugated box design
• Intermediate bulk container
• Shipping container
• Dutch flower bucket

• McKinlay, A. H. Transport Packaging (2nd ed.). Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.: Institute of Packaging Professionals, 2004, OCLC 60361752
• Yam, K. L., Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology, John Wiley & Sons, 2009, ISBN 978-0-470-08704-6

Corrugated box design is the process of matching design factors for corrugated fiberboard (sometimes called corrugated cardboard) or corrugated plastic boxes with the functional physical, processing and end-use requirements. Packaging engineers work to meet the performance requirements of a box while controlling total costs throughout the system. Corrugated boxes are shipping containers used for transport packaging and have important functional and economic considerations.^[1]

In addition to the structural design, printed bar codes, labels, and graphic design can also be important.

Microflute box with circular security tape seal

Partially open; showing tuck flap and locking tab (tongue)

Corrugated boxes are used frequently as shipping containers. Boxes need to contain the product from manufacturing through distribution to sale and sometimes end-use. Boxes provide some measure of product protection by themselves but often require inner components such as cushioning, bracing and blocking to help protect fragile contents. The shipping hazards depend largely upon the particular logistics system being employed. For example, boxes unitized into a unit load on a pallet do not encounter individual handling while boxes sorted and shipped through part of their distribution cycle as mixed loads or express carriers can receive severe shocks, kicks, and so forth.^[2][3][4]

Ordinary shipping containers require printing and labels to identify the contents, provide legal and regulatory information, and bar codes for routing. Boxes that are used for marketing, merchandising and point-of-sale often have high graphics to help communicate the contents. Some boxes are designed for the display of contents on the shelf known as "Retail Ready Packaging". Others are designed to help dispense the contents. Popular for their strength, durability, lightness, recyclability, and cost-effectiveness, corrugated boxes are used for the shipping of a variety of items. Due to the quality and safety of packaging items in corrugated boxes, they are used widely in the food industry. The boxes handle the pressure that comes with stacking, making them ideal for easy transporting.

More than 95% of all products in the United States are shipped in corrugated boxes. Corrugated paperboard accounts for more than half of all the paper recycled in the US.

One of the important functions of a corrugated box is to provide crush resistance (product protection) and adequate strength for stacking in warehouses. If long-term storage of corrugated boxes in high humidity is expected, extra strength and moisture resistance is called for. The method of loading boxes on pallets strongly affects stacking. Vertical columns provide the best box performance while interlocking patterns of boxes significantly reduce performance. The interaction of the boxes and pallets is also important.^[5][6]

A box can be designed by optimizing the grade of corrugated board, box design, flute direction, and inner supports. Support from the product also provides "load sharing" and can be an important factor.^[7] Box closures sometimes can have effects on box stacking strength.^[8]

Box compression testing is a means of evaluating boxes, stacks of boxes, and unit loads under controlled conditions. Field conditions of stacking and dynamic compression do not have the same degree of control. Compression strength can be estimated based on container construction, size, and use parameters: actual package testing is often conducted to verify these estimates.