Social History Of The Cardboard Box

May 15, 2024 6:52 PM

'Cardboard’s ubiquity rests on simple claims: I can hold that, and I can go there'.
posted by Fiasco da Gama (23 comments total)

This is a great read. I'm halfway thru.
posted by Czjewel at 8:33 PM on May 15 [1 favorite]

Okay, the ending is perfect.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 9:04 PM on May 15 [4 favorites]

"woodbasket" reminded me of Woodhenge
posted by HearHere at 9:52 PM on May 15

Amazon has sent me many suprising ideas but the best ever was the suggestion that I might like to buy a lot of cardboard boxes.
posted by Phanx at 10:53 PM on May 15 [3 favorites]

Interesting article, thanks. I had not come across Georgia Dickie's work.
posted by paduasoy at 12:06 AM on May 16

"which sold it to Smurfit Kappa Group, a Scottish outfit that still makes packages and paper products today, with operations around the world."
Insofar as multinationals are associated with any country, Smurfit is an Irish outfit founded in the 1930s in Dublin 4. They wear the green jersey paying for naming rights in Irish institutions: The Smurfit Business School in UCD, The Smurfit Institute of Genetics in TCD (where I worked for a decade) etc.

I didn't come here to wave flags but to share a remarkable (you can do this at home) experiment to show the structural resilience of cardboard. In my Intro Bio labs we had a practical class on the human skeleton. One engineering point is that the load-bearing bones are hollow cylinders (think femur and bone marrow). To show how strong cylinders can be, the students were invited to use 4 toilet-roll centres as a proxy for a leg at each corner, and pile lab-books and reams of xerox paper until failure. 4 x 7g tubes can easily support 28kg of paper - a 1:1000 ratio.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:48 AM on May 16 [12 favorites]

This is an excellent article, thanks for posting.
posted by chavenet at 3:34 AM on May 16

The history of cardboard boxes is intertwined with the history of board games. The first use of a cardboard box in packaging was The Game of Beseiging, published in Germany in 1817. Waddingtons, the great British games-maker of the C20th, the publishers of Clue/Cluedo, Buccaneer and many others, was a packaging and printing company that never made more than 15% of its profits from games.
posted by Hogshead at 4:14 AM on May 16 [7 favorites]

I break down, cut with utility knife to manageable size and bind with twine approximately 25/30 various size cardboard boxes a week. This is because my brother whom I am caretaking(he has ALS) loves to order from Amazon,and other sites. It's a joy for him so I don't tell him he is wasting his money. There are about 40 unopened boxes in the living room, some from 4 years ago. It's a bit of a hoarder situation, but I keep them in order, and neat and clean. Anyway, the point I was trying to make before I derailed is the many varieties and thicknesses of cardboard boxes. The various ripple weaves between the two outer layers. I've come to respect this stuff.
posted by Czjewel at 5:06 AM on May 16 [2 favorites]

I break down, cut with utility knife to manageable size and bind with twine approximately 25/30 various size cardboard boxes a week.

Like everyone who orders things online from time to time, we tend to have quite a few boxes arriving over time. Like you I break them down and put them in the recycling bin as they arrive. The funny thing to me is that sometimes I will have a need for a certain size of box for something, and how long it can take for that size of box to arrive. Amazon in particular seems completely random in the box sizes it uses. Tiny items in a huge box, or small things each in a separate tiny box, or a different combination. The boxers clearly have creative freedom.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:18 AM on May 16 [2 favorites]

I break down, cut with utility knife to manageable size and bind with twine approximately 25/30 various size cardboard boxes a week.

Is there such a thing as a prosumer baler?
Balers are interesting, they're so necessary, but as I understand it, one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment in many workplaces, at least as advertised
posted by Audreynachrome at 7:03 AM on May 16

Audreynachrome. I'm not aware of this item. But I probably wouldn't have it in my home. I find the practice of cutting down and binding pretty soothing. But I find ironing clothes soothing too. Instant gratification I suppose.
posted by Czjewel at 7:15 AM on May 16

Is there such a thing as a prosumer baler?

Not a baler, but I bought my partner (who usually does the cardboard breakdown for recycling) a Ryobi cordless cutting tool and he LOVES it. He never once complained about using a regular boxcutter but ended up loving that cutting tool so much. I really recommend it!

We typically let the boxes build up in the basement until recycling day, which is only once every two weeks. We have alleys so our garbage and recycling bins are not near the house, so it makes more sense given we have the space to just break them down all at once -- which has the added benefit of leaving them intact in case we end up needing a box for something.
posted by misskaz at 7:29 AM on May 16

I had a safe cardboard knife for a while which worked really well. It was hung above the recycle bin and I’m horribly afraid we dropped it into the bin and I dearly hope the sorters found it in time.

While looking that up, got a recommendation for a sort of Meccano-from-cardboard knife and connector set which looks like a pile of fun. Granted, I already make domestic things out of spare boxes all the time. Theoretically they’re demos for real construction but often they last for years. Wow cardboard!
posted by clew at 8:24 AM on May 16 [2 favorites]

The more I think about this, the more I wonder - why do we recycle cardboard?

I mean, it's quite recyclable, sure. But imagine the carbon offset if we could just bury it somewhere instead, and keep capturing atmospheric carbon in the form of trees to make new cardboard.

Grind it into a slurry and pump it into old oil wells. Bale it up and pack it into the shafts of defunct coal mines. Put as much carbon back underground as we can.

Then wait... a few million years from now, whatever life is left can dig it up and use it for fuel
posted by caution live frogs at 10:01 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]

caution live frogs: "The more I think about this, the more I wonder - why do we recycle cardboard?"

(Aside from the waste and monoculture and etc. inherent in mass-growing shitty timber just to pulp it... )
posted by caution live frogs at 11:06 AM on May 16

I bought the Make.do construction kit linked above for our four-year-old's birthday and for her party we started making a castle out of the cardboard I'd hoarded, then the kids got involved and the parents too and then we brought out poster paints... then we broke the castle down, saved the screws for the nest building project and then used the leftover cardboard as a weed suppression layer under mulch.

Highly recommended for all ages.
posted by pipstar at 11:12 AM on May 16 [2 favorites]

"The more I think about this, the more I wonder - why do we recycle cardboard?"

From the linked piece:

Cardboard is more recyclable than other packaging materials, yet each regenerative cycle shortens and weakens the pine fibers, pushing degraded bits through the screens. Fibers can typically be recycled only five to seven times. So our seemingly endless need for boxes demands new trees.

posted by german_bight at 11:44 AM on May 16 [1 favorite]

Wow. This twisty trip highlighted something so basic, culturally transformative, and ubiquitous that it's become invisible. (Except when Sigoth and I go to Las Cruces for a town day, when we load the car with bottles, plastic, and cardboard. Our first stop is the recycling center.)

I was surprised to learn that the structure of a cardboard box was identical to the materials we used as shock absorbers (I worked as an Army Rigger specializing in heavy drop). The "honeycomb" material came to us collapsed into solid bars, which we expanded by hand. Then, we pulled a sheet of paper through a device that applied a layer of glue to one side, which we carefully placed over the honeycomb and then allowed it to dry. We cut the honeycomb into various shapes to conform to specific places on each vehicle. We stacked the blocks on a platform and carefully lowered various trucks, howitzers, or ammo boxes, lashing the load to the platform. The number of layers of honeycomb was calculated to handle the weight of the object to be dropped. I used this technique in 1964; my predecessors used it in WWII, and it's still being used today.

I came for the cat picture and stayed for the essay.
posted by mule98J at 1:23 PM on May 16 [2 favorites]

Great piece. Was a distinct pleasure to read.

One of Gimlet's early podcasts was Surprisingly Awesome (before it was turned into Every Little Thing then made a Spotify-exclusive then canceled), and the episode that hooked me was about cardboard, featuring John Hodgman. Cardboard is cool stuff.
posted by General Malaise at 2:11 PM on May 16

A really interesting read about something we take for granted to an extraordinary degree.

why do we recycle cardboard?
I'm not here at all to criticise recycling, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could find a viable way to re-use cardboard instead? I mean, other things too, but cardboard boxes seem like a good candidate, if we could solve how to get them back to somewhere that sends things out in boxes.
posted by dg at 10:27 PM on May 16

We might better grade up to stronger boxes that can be cleaned if we’re going to re use at all, dg.

Was just at a wholesale-veg meeting talking about how limited the allowable reuse of waxed boxes is. (For food, to be clear.)
posted by clew at 10:59 PM on May 16

Another recommendation for the Makedo kit! We mostly use it to turn boxes into playhouses. The biggest benefit (for that purpose) is that you're no longer limited by the original size of the box: just cut a piece from a second box and screw it on, like riveting metal plates.

I really enjoyed the article; it's one of those that makes you appreciate something you kind of took for granted.
posted by demi-octopus at 3:42 AM on May 18