Giant bales of cardboard, some stacked 15 feet high, sit inside the S. Slesnick Co. warehouse waiting to be shipped to paper mills.
Some see all those cardboard boxes in your home leftover from holiday shopping as an afterthought of no redeeming value, something else to toss in the trash can.
David Held is hopeful more of the public can refrain from the impulse to just throw away useful cardboard and think of recycling.
"It is not good use of the material," said Held, longtime executive director of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Recycling District. "Why would we send the material to the landfill when it can be repurposed? We are trying to tell people, 'Recycle the cardboard. Don't put it in the garbage. Take it to a recycle drop-off.'"
Recycling needs to be embraced more, according to Held, who with others involved in the waste management industry want to see your boxes and discarded cardboard converted into useful material.
"It is the one material that can be recycled over and over again," said Jen Alder, who oversees business development for S. Slesnick Co. "Environmentally, one of the most valuable things you can recycle is cardboard."
And cardboard is becoming more plentiful as consumers use e-commerce more to have merchandise shipped to their homes or places of business.
"It has really been in the past two years, with all of the e-commerce, we are seeing an increase of packages delivered to homes," Held said. "And as a result, an increase in cardboard. The volume of cardboard that we are collecting is going up significantly. That is our largest recyclable by its volume. People are buying items online higher (rate) than before."
The S. Slesnick Co. at 700 Third St. SE in the downtown Canton area generally accepts used cardboard boxes from regional businesses.
"The paper mills that actually do the recycling want roughly 40,000 pounds of baled material," said Scott Slesnick, vice president. "They want 40,000 pounds of cardboard baled. There is a spike in demand from the mills to meet these orders."
Stark County has 39 drop-off sites. And incorporated municipalities (like Canton and Wooster) have curbside pickup service for recyclables. In Wayne County there are more than 20 drop-off sites.
For Zach Bush, recycling cardboard has a dual benefit.
"It takes up a lot of space, number one," said Bush, who was unloading sheets of cardboard from a pickup truck while at a recycle drop-off site in the 2800 block of Easton Street in Plain Township.
"It is kind of tough to fit in the trash. Recycling is good when you can do it. So I try to be environmentally conscious. I would like next year to start composting this stuff."
What happens to cardboard that is recycled?
After cardboard is brought to a drop-off site, it goes to a plant to be converted into new materials. Generally, cardboard boxes that contained prepared food, such as pizza, are not considered recyclable. That is because those boxes often are contaminated.
"We have built a system where cardboard can be created into a new product," said Jamie Zawila of Resource Recycling Systems. "Those manufacturers need that cardboard. Cardboard can be made back into boxes. In addition to that, it can be made into chipboard. It can be made into tissue paper."
Resource Recycling Systems is an Ann Arbor, Mich.,-based consulting operation that focuses on economic and environmental concerns. Zawila is a consultant who works with solid waste management districts in Ohio and the state Environmental Protection Agency.
Recycling cardboard "is just utilizing material that is already in your supply chain," Zawila said. "When you recycle cardboard, it creates jobs. It creates more jobs than landfilling cardboard."
Within the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Recycling District, there are three solid waste landfills. Two are within Stark County - Waste Management American Landfill in Sandy Township and Republic Services Countywide Landfill in Pike Township. There also is a landfill in Tuscarawas County operated by the Kimble Co.
The tri-county recycling district also has been known as Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District.
"One of the things we work with our members on is communicating with folks about what can and cannot be recycled," said Brandon Wright, public relations officer for the National Waste & Recycling Association. "We would encourage people to recycle cardboard. There is a market for it."
National Waste & Recycling Association is a Washington, D.C.,-based association that represents those in the private sector waste and recycling industry.
"It is a process that not many people are familiar with," Wright said. "It goes to a material recovery (processing) facility first. That is where recyclables are sorted and separated. Our members aren't the ones doing the recycling. They are sending it somewhere else. For a long time, it was going to China until China said it doesn't want it anymore."
The Chinese government put a stop to accepting scrap from other nations in 2018 unless the material met a strict contamination standard.
"We would certainly tell folks to break that box down and take it to the curb for recycling," Wight said.
Reach Malcolm at 330-580-8305 or malcolm.hall@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: mhallREP
Cardboard recycling
Want to recycle your leftover holiday shopping boxes and cardboard? Wayne County has numerous drop-off sites. Here are some:
Chippewa Township Recycling Drop-off at 14065 Galehouse Rd. Doylestown.
Paint Township Recycling Drop-off at 10075 Winesburg Rd. Mt. Eaton.
Village of Apple Creek Recycling Drop-off at 3059 S. Apple Creek Rd. Apple Creek.
Village of Smithville Recycling Drop-off at 686 E. Main St. Smithville.
Chester Township Recycling Drop-off at 7334 N. Elyria Rd. West Salem.
Village of West Salem Recycling Drop-off at 115 S. Main St. West Salem.
Village of Congress Recycling Drop-off at 10200 Congress Rd. Congress.
Milton Township Recycling Drop-off at 13985 Kauffman Ave. Sterling.
City of Wooster Recycling Drop-off at 3540 Burbank Rd. Wooster.
Village of Creston Recycling Drop-off at 150 Factory St. Creston.
City of Orrville Recycling Drop-off at 1114 W. High St. Orrville.
Plain Township Recycling Drop-off at 3026 S. Elyria Rd. Wooster.
Village of Fredericksburg Recycling Drop-off at 160 W. Clay St. Fredericksburg.
- For a complete list of recycling locations near you, contact the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Recycle District at 330-874-2258 or visit: timetorecycle.org.