How to Recycle: Cardboard

As always, when looking to see if we accept certain items or not, please be sure to consult your area location page.

Accepted and Not Accepted items are determined by what your Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) will and will not take. This is not to say that some of these common items are not recyclable at all, just generally not accepted with curbside recycling. We are developing a hard-to-recycle items program called Recyclops+ that is currently available in select areas. Here is a general list of cardboard items that are accepted in most areas:

• Large Corrugated Cardboard such as:
  • Shipping/Packaging Boxes
  • Online Shopping Boxes
  • Moving Boxes
  • Product Boxes

• Pizza/Food boxes (with no food residue/waste left inside)  
• For paperboard items such as cereal and cracker boxes see here

Please ensure that ALL ITEMS are clean and rinsed from food debris or other residue to be recycled. All cardboard items are to be broken down and flattened for collection. Cardboard that is not broken down and flattened will NOT be collected. For smaller cardboard boxes less than 18" in length, we ask that you bag these smaller items to prevent them from flying out of driver vehicles. For larger cardboard boxes such as refrigerator/TV/furniture boxes, we ask that you break & cut down the boxes further to a reasonable size to allow for more efficient collection. When in doubt, please check your area location page and list of unaccepted items to ensure if an item will be accepted or not.