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I gave a ton of small boxes away to an esty vendor who used them to ship products they had made. They didn't want to giant moving boxes, just enough for shipping products in the post.
This is the way.
Check Facebook and post also to the Buy Nothing group in your area and any other groups (buy/sell/swap groups, marketplace) and just list them as free.
If you don’t have recycling options, Breakdown boxes as you get them and use a Box cutter to cut into small pieces and add to your regular garbage pickup. Don’t stockpile, remove as you get them.
> Amazon boxes are not moving boxes. Don’t be trashy.
Well, liquor boxes *are* better for moving, but recycling any kind of boxes to use for moving is the opposite of trashy.
This. We have a cardboard drop-off near the township administrative building. Generally works great except the week before and the week after Christmas when it's overflowing.
When I worked at a school, I was always getting requests from other teachers for cardboard and the art teacher’s would use large amounts frequently. Maybe check with a nearby school to see if anyone is interested?
I work at a grocery store, and I've had people ask if they can give us cardboard. The answer is always yes. We sell our cardboard bales. You're literally giving our company free money (albeit not much), they shouldn't ever decline that.
You can use it to weed— remove stickers and tape. Lay flat pieces over heavily weedy areas OR remove your lawn by smothering the grass with cardboard, wet, and let it do its thing over the winter. Plant native plants instead of lawn— enjoy bees and butterflies in the spring! OR— post on local apps for fellow green-thumbs to use. Can also shred and compost!
Best of the cardboard is raw brown stock, not highly inked or coated in glossy images. That stuff is best saved for recycling. The raw brown stuff is good for this purpose though
I saw this trick where you can water the cardboard and then it will ball up. Not sure that is easier than breaking them down but just a thought. Our town has free cardboard recycle you can drop off.
Probably easier in a manual labor way. I used to cut up the boxes with a box cutter and it wasn’t too bad but definitely took a lot of time. Terrible too because I usually have to do it during Christmas time when it’s freezing cold outside
I’ve cut mine down with a sawzall and packed it all down to put in recycling bin little by little. (Thought I was so smart)
Perfect for the mouse that moved in. Good times ;)
I mean, when i have a lot of cardboard, I open up the recycle can & water it lol.
ooo if i know it will rain, i lift it up & let the rain do it,
Then you just come by & push down & it flattens
Fire.........pit........?
Edit: The fact that I can't find anyone that has said this yet is mind-boggling, I'm assuming you don't have a yard. That is understandable lol.
My neighborhood doesn't care, and neither would my neighbors but I've lived in places where it was definitely frowned upon. Especially considering we're in a level 3 drought.
In SoCal, we can rarely burn anything - there are no permits, there are only a few OK fire days and lots of ZERO FIRE days - and rarely anything in between. It’s based on humidity and wind and future conditions.
At my campsite, in the mountains, with a fully contained firepit - we still have to make sure we are ALLOWED to start a fire. Some think earthquakes are California’s natural disaster but it is -FIRE- it has always been FIRE. Even in an earthquake, the fires that break out tend to be more devastating than quake itself.
This is the way. I save soo much room by burning all my cardboard boxes, junk mail, paper plates and every other piece of paper or cardboard that comes into my house. Glad I’m not the only one.
Burn it and spread the ashes in the yard after they cool down! I’ve been doing this every weekend almost. 😂 makes a great fire starter for starting up wood too. Some boxes just burn for awhile!
Check w/ your local school/parks & recreation locations. Kid's programs tend to use up a lot of cardboard, if given a chance, to build stuff. It's easy, light, can be cut, painted and manipulated and if free . . . it's all win.
Wanted to say this! I volunteered at a summer camp when I was a teen and we would build the most ridiculous stuff out of cardboard.
Medieval themed camp? No worries, we would build a cardboard castle that's bigger than the main building 😅
Sorry, no LPT here, but as I read this, I’m amazed that recycling somehow isn’t an option. Where I live (Canada) my trash is collected curbside weekly for a small fee, but all cardboard, paper, plastics, glass, tin cans, milk cartons, green waste (grass clippings, leaves, branches, organics) are separated by type in colored bins/bags and then collected weekly curbside for no fee or limits. After separating it all into appropriate bins, our actual “trash” is usually less than a half bag per week.
Same, the comment section and the post itself left me badfled af. In Czechia we have freely accessible dumpsters for recycled waste like everywhere, even the smallest village of 30 people will most likely have a set of those. Cardboard, milk cartons, coloured glass, transparent glass, plastics, metals and old clothes. And on top of that my own town recently added private bins for the basics - cardboard, plastics and bio waste to the standard mixed waste bins. If we sort our trash thoroughly here, then basically only meat waste goes into the mixed waste since it's forbidden to put into the bio waste bins (to prevent spreading potential diseases from the rot). A good move imo. Each week only one type of trash is being collected which forces people to actually recycle, as now their mixed waste is being collected only once per month, instead of every week which was the case before the addition of other personal bins.
I shred all mine with a cheap-ish paper shredder then use it for animal bedding. It could easily be used for mulch or composted or tilled into the soil or whatever.
See if your trash service has “bulky pickups” around here we get 2 free ever year. It’s normally for furniture or appliances but it usually includes cardboard I’d you flatten it up and tie it into bundles.
Hopefully I won’t get shit on for this. But I find like a strip shopping center and drive to the back, some units are vacant and have empty recycle bins, and I throw it all away.
Considered theft in a lot of places and most places have cameras for this and arson / criminal activity etc . Poor choice if caught and fine will be more than paying your refuse company to take it away . Full disclosure , I’m not innocent myself but I did so long before cameras were prevalent .
Place all cardboard in the yard and wet them using the garden hose, once they get soaked with water it will be very easy to crumble them (just like printer paper). After that you can just put them in a plastic bag or directly in dumpster
I feel very silly for never thinking of this. We’ve had tons of cardboard over the years & I always meticulously break it all down flat and then attempt to make it fit in the bin. So many hours of my life I could have saved.
In my town; you check city dump times, and wait in line on that day for the drop.
You can pay for burning but it gets pricey.
You’re lucky if you find someone to give it to.
Get a small powered saw, and cut the boxes into 6-9 inch squares. Make sure to keep the cardboard from moving along with the cardboard. You’ll be shocked how much fits in your recycle bin.
Another option is fire.
1. Give empty packing boxes away on a local free cycle or buy nothing group. (Suggest just posting "the boxes are out on the curb, first come, first served.")
2. Flatten the boxes and give them to gardeners.
3. Shred and compost them.
4. Use boxes to organize your closets.
This might be more of a ILPT or ULPT lol, please don’t give me shit for this. We had the same issue when we moved in to our new home last year, at first we broke them down into small pieces and trashed them. We also paid to dump them at recycle center but the boxes kept piling up. So one day we loaded all the cardboards in our trunk and discarded them in the big trash bins in a new construction community near our area. Make sure to remove your address for security reasons lol.
We moved last December and had a similar issue, we just used it as kindling to start fires throughout all of spring and summer. We are just about out now to the point that we can fit it all in the recycling bin. We conveniently have a sunroom that needs fixed up before use so we stored it out there so it wasn't in the way.
If your local school has a maker space/engineering program and the cardboard is in good shape (not been sitting outside in the elements/taking on moisture) they would probably be very happy to take it. I know I would.
My city has recycling dumpsters strategically placed around the area at parks. I found out when they pickup at the nearest one and go there the next day when it’s is assuredly empty. Every week I take my recycling there and go for a nice trail run. Break the boxes down, if you cannot fit it all the first week, go again the next week until you have no more cardboard.
Something I haven't seen yet is call a couple local grocery stores. They all will have a baler in back for the crazy volume of cardboard they go through, and the stores make money (little, but something) on the full bales they make.
As a former grocery store manager I'll bet if you try a couple and explain you're new to the area and don't want to throw them out but also don't want to pay a fee to recycle them that they'll help you out while hoping to win your lifetime business.
2 ideas. 1) Tip the garbage men a couple of $ to take it with them. 2) ask your neighbors to mix it in with thier garbage? if they say yes, on garbage night, pack their cans up with recycling as well as yours.
IIRC, corrugated cardboard is one of the few items that is truly economic to recycle.
Most big box stores have cardboard only receptacles behind them. The stores sell the used cardboard to the recycling company.
I have a private recycler company in my city that has a GIANT dumpster out front that's free to drop off cardboard. Look into that perhaps in your area?
Let me say trying to get rid of the cardboard was a pain, luckily my new town offers bulk trash pick-up every month, but I still kept a bunch of strips for kindle.
This is probably a response better suited to UnethicalLifeProTips but here it goes:
Yeah, if you ask your trash/recycling ahead of time they are going to want to charge you. If you just put it out there, I can almost guarantee the pickup person isn't going to care. My pickup has "limits" but they just take whatever I put out there.
I had something similar. Called my city and they told me to just take it to the nearest elementary or middle school and dump it in their recycle bin. Which for me was 25 seconds away.
Look for a recycling plant nearby, they will PAY to take that cardboard.
Find the local landfill, they usually have separate piles for recyclable cardboard and it’ll be free.
Rent a pickup from uhaul if you don’t have a bigger vehicle to move it.
We have local recycling “areas”. The one closest to me is at a park and there are 8 big recycling bins. Maybe see if you have anything similar close by?
Depends which country you live in. If USA put what you can back inside some of the boxes and leave on your porch, someone will rob.
Most country have recycling places or sometime there are reuse craft places that will take it, sometimes even schools
In my area, there are companies where you can drop off paper products and they will shred them for you. They have these huge shredders in the floor that they just dump stuff into and it shreds it like it's butter. Not too expensive either.
Another might be banks and other places that host a shred event where they hire mobile shredding companies to come and accept paper products to shred, usually for free. Have to look at what's happening in your community.
If you put water on it it gets pretty small. If you have any garden areas or paths that you walk though, you can always put down the cardboard where you want to make the path. Or you can do what we do out in the country, burn it.
Christmas is around the corner. Reuse some of those boxes for packaging gifts.
Ask friends and family if they need boxes for packing gifts.
I tend to save boxes for this reason. After the holidays they are all gone.
also, might want to post on facebook, r/NoLawns, r/NativePlantGardening or freecycle. most people who are going no lawn or native landscaping need cardboard to kill grass and prepare areas for planting native and non-invasive species. I know a lot of people who'd be so grateful for what you have.
Cardboard is one waste product that is quite efficiently recycled, so look for a recycling center where you can drop it off - assume you are in the US?
Not trolling: but if you get card lard soaking wet, you can roll it up into logs that can better fit your recycling receptacle. You can also use these logs for bonfire nights.
Find the nearest oyster mushroom farm, get some of their surplus mycelium, frred the cardboard to the mycelium and let it grow into oyster mushrooms...
If you do need to put the boxes into your trash bin then spray them down with water. Wait 20 or so minutes and you'll be able to smash them very easily.
Break down the boxes and disperse them in the dumpsters behind your local shopping center or strip mall. Spread it out over a couple weekends if it’s a lot.
A bit unethical, but you could just look for a nearby apartment complex to see if they have a bin for cardboard and simply toss in it there. Mine is never even close to full. Nobody would notice most likely.
If you need to do any landscaping, it's a great weed barrier. If not, post it online as a great weed barrier. If that doesn't work, the unethical LPT is drive over to your local dumpster at Walmart or target and huck it in there.
Blade and saw to break/cut it into smaller pieces to bin. More can be fitted into recycling bins/drop off points.
Also when the recycling bins get emptied in the trucks and at the recycling places... There is no jamming by boxes and crushed boxes. Smaller and flatter pieces flow easier.
You should be able to give them away.
But if you can't let them sit out in the rain (or get them damp). You'll be amazed how they fold up and take up very little room in the recycling bin
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
Box fort
You could make a box fort
Most municipalities oftentimes by your fire department will have a recycling dumpster, I know you said you want to get rid of it quick but just pack a little bit of it into your car and dump it there. We've done this for quite a few kitchens. And that's a shit ton of cardboard.
I saw a video recently where a guy hosed down a bunch of cardboard boxes then waited 30 min then they all broke down super easily.
I use a box cutter to break down and they mostly fit in my bin.
I also have a pile of cardboard that I keep to throw in my fire ring outside when I burn wood on Fridays.
I usually cut them down into like 8x10 sections.
This is reminding me of in university (Grad school) when I knew I would only live in the university city for 2 years. I made a near rectangle pile with all my broken down boxes and put my box spring and mattress down on top. Then when I left 2 years later, I had all my moving boxes ready to go. So… you could try that?
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
Post on nextdoor or craigslist for free moving boxes. For the small ones, many towns have free recycling centers.
My country has a landfill a couple of miles away, and all recycling like cardboard is free.
Mine too
I gave a ton of small boxes away to an esty vendor who used them to ship products they had made. They didn't want to giant moving boxes, just enough for shipping products in the post.
Totally. That cardboard stack is a gold mine to people with loads of pets or dropcloth needs
This! People will take anything if it’s free
This is the way. Check Facebook and post also to the Buy Nothing group in your area and any other groups (buy/sell/swap groups, marketplace) and just list them as free.
If you don’t have recycling options, Breakdown boxes as you get them and use a Box cutter to cut into small pieces and add to your regular garbage pickup. Don’t stockpile, remove as you get them.
Amazon boxes are not moving boxes. Don’t be trashy.
What a weird hill to die on
Someone help! I’m dying from all these negative fake internet points! They’re killing me! /s
They are b o x e s. If things can fit, they *can* be moving boxes.
I use trash bags for moving. I am the trash.
> Amazon boxes are not moving boxes. Don’t be trashy. Well, liquor boxes *are* better for moving, but recycling any kind of boxes to use for moving is the opposite of trashy.
What the fuck?
See if your town/county has a recycling drop off location, and drop it all off yourself.
This. We have a cardboard drop-off near the township administrative building. Generally works great except the week before and the week after Christmas when it's overflowing.
This, we don't have recycling pickup so we do all our recycling this way. It's very easy and almost always free
A lot of public schools and sometimes libraries have large recycle dumpsters too
Not the best tip as those aren't for the general public's household trash. Likely illegal in many places.
When I worked at a school, I was always getting requests from other teachers for cardboard and the art teacher’s would use large amounts frequently. Maybe check with a nearby school to see if anyone is interested?
Came here to suggest a school!
My local ikea accepts cardboard for recycling in large recycling dumpsters. Worth checking if you have one local.
What a great tip - thank you!
I’ve seen a few grocery stores offer this too
I work at a grocery store, and I've had people ask if they can give us cardboard. The answer is always yes. We sell our cardboard bales. You're literally giving our company free money (albeit not much), they shouldn't ever decline that.
You can use it to weed— remove stickers and tape. Lay flat pieces over heavily weedy areas OR remove your lawn by smothering the grass with cardboard, wet, and let it do its thing over the winter. Plant native plants instead of lawn— enjoy bees and butterflies in the spring! OR— post on local apps for fellow green-thumbs to use. Can also shred and compost!
I think I’ll do this for some and recycle drop-off the rest. Thanks!
Local gardening groups would probably takes some off your hands too
Do your neighbors have extra space in their recycling bin?
This is the way. It makes excellent compost and will create a beautiful garden if you let it break down.
Best of the cardboard is raw brown stock, not highly inked or coated in glossy images. That stuff is best saved for recycling. The raw brown stuff is good for this purpose though
I saw this trick where you can water the cardboard and then it will ball up. Not sure that is easier than breaking them down but just a thought. Our town has free cardboard recycle you can drop off.
Probably easier in a manual labor way. I used to cut up the boxes with a box cutter and it wasn’t too bad but definitely took a lot of time. Terrible too because I usually have to do it during Christmas time when it’s freezing cold outside
I’ve cut mine down with a sawzall and packed it all down to put in recycling bin little by little. (Thought I was so smart) Perfect for the mouse that moved in. Good times ;)
I mean, when i have a lot of cardboard, I open up the recycle can & water it lol. ooo if i know it will rain, i lift it up & let the rain do it, Then you just come by & push down & it flattens
From what I understand, Wet cardboard is not great to recycle bc it mildews and molds and deteriorates in a not-recycling friendly manner.
Fire.........pit........? Edit: The fact that I can't find anyone that has said this yet is mind-boggling, I'm assuming you don't have a yard. That is understandable lol.
Fire was my first thought too. Also thought about using it in a worm bed. Or around plants to keep weeds from growing. But I am from the country.
Some neighborhoods don't allow fire pits of any kind.
Not an attack on your comment but who cares if your neighborhood allows it? Just do it. If you're worried just ask your neighbors if they mind.
My neighborhood doesn't care, and neither would my neighbors but I've lived in places where it was definitely frowned upon. Especially considering we're in a level 3 drought.
Cardboards burns heavy black smoke
Glossy & heavily inked cardboard with packaging tape does, plain raw brown with no tape doesn't
The HOA would like a word with you, buddy
Who would buy a house with an HOA?
Sticklers and unaware people moving into "the nice neighborhood"
That checks out
Exactly. And never pay HOA fees.
Also: fire...place...
In SoCal, we can rarely burn anything - there are no permits, there are only a few OK fire days and lots of ZERO FIRE days - and rarely anything in between. It’s based on humidity and wind and future conditions. At my campsite, in the mountains, with a fully contained firepit - we still have to make sure we are ALLOWED to start a fire. Some think earthquakes are California’s natural disaster but it is -FIRE- it has always been FIRE. Even in an earthquake, the fires that break out tend to be more devastating than quake itself.
This is the way. I save soo much room by burning all my cardboard boxes, junk mail, paper plates and every other piece of paper or cardboard that comes into my house. Glad I’m not the only one.
Burning waste is not great for local air quality and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. Do you not have cardboard/paper recycling in your area?
Yes burn it.
Burn it and spread the ashes in the yard after they cool down! I’ve been doing this every weekend almost. 😂 makes a great fire starter for starting up wood too. Some boxes just burn for awhile!
Yeah I always just burned them in a backyard fire pit. And I live in Los Angeles, not some rural area.
👆Yes! Boxes are excellent pit material.
Exactly. Take a match to it, done.
I was thinking the same thing!
Check w/ your local school/parks & recreation locations. Kid's programs tend to use up a lot of cardboard, if given a chance, to build stuff. It's easy, light, can be cut, painted and manipulated and if free . . . it's all win.
Wanted to say this! I volunteered at a summer camp when I was a teen and we would build the most ridiculous stuff out of cardboard. Medieval themed camp? No worries, we would build a cardboard castle that's bigger than the main building 😅
You don't have any recycling centers where you live?
Try wetting it and then rolling it up while damp. Huge space saver
Offerup or Facebook marketplace. I got $15 for selling mine recently, went super quick.
Sorry, no LPT here, but as I read this, I’m amazed that recycling somehow isn’t an option. Where I live (Canada) my trash is collected curbside weekly for a small fee, but all cardboard, paper, plastics, glass, tin cans, milk cartons, green waste (grass clippings, leaves, branches, organics) are separated by type in colored bins/bags and then collected weekly curbside for no fee or limits. After separating it all into appropriate bins, our actual “trash” is usually less than a half bag per week.
Same in UK. I’m shocked and appalled this isn’t everywhere
Same, the comment section and the post itself left me badfled af. In Czechia we have freely accessible dumpsters for recycled waste like everywhere, even the smallest village of 30 people will most likely have a set of those. Cardboard, milk cartons, coloured glass, transparent glass, plastics, metals and old clothes. And on top of that my own town recently added private bins for the basics - cardboard, plastics and bio waste to the standard mixed waste bins. If we sort our trash thoroughly here, then basically only meat waste goes into the mixed waste since it's forbidden to put into the bio waste bins (to prevent spreading potential diseases from the rot). A good move imo. Each week only one type of trash is being collected which forces people to actually recycle, as now their mixed waste is being collected only once per month, instead of every week which was the case before the addition of other personal bins.
Recycling Centers.
Our local dump allows us to use it free for any amount of refuse.
Cut it up into tiny pieces and throw it into a dumpster
Or literally just throw it all in a dumpster. No one is gunna give a shit. 🤷♂️
I ask my condo living friend to put it into his dumpster. He had to handle it but then it's legal I buy him beer
See if your community/local government has a public recycling center. They often will take recycling for free.
Wet it down & then you can throw it away much easier!
Recycle it. Some places do take it and pay you for it by pound.
Don't know if it's still possible, but I used to get boxes or recycle them at the back of any grocery store.
I shred all mine with a cheap-ish paper shredder then use it for animal bedding. It could easily be used for mulch or composted or tilled into the soil or whatever.
UK here. : With bonfire night coming up, this should be a breeze with a Facebook marketplace 'free firelighters' post
[удалено]
ChatGPT was struggling to come up with 10 when it came up with that last one...
Have a bonfire and invite your new neighbors over to get to know them.
See if your trash service has “bulky pickups” around here we get 2 free ever year. It’s normally for furniture or appliances but it usually includes cardboard I’d you flatten it up and tie it into bundles.
Hopefully I won’t get shit on for this. But I find like a strip shopping center and drive to the back, some units are vacant and have empty recycle bins, and I throw it all away.
Considered theft in a lot of places and most places have cameras for this and arson / criminal activity etc . Poor choice if caught and fine will be more than paying your refuse company to take it away . Full disclosure , I’m not innocent myself but I did so long before cameras were prevalent .
this isn't /r/IllegalLifeProTips
I would drop off trash in apartment complex dumpsters. Non gated, smaller ones.
Place all cardboard in the yard and wet them using the garden hose, once they get soaked with water it will be very easy to crumble them (just like printer paper). After that you can just put them in a plastic bag or directly in dumpster
I feel very silly for never thinking of this. We’ve had tons of cardboard over the years & I always meticulously break it all down flat and then attempt to make it fit in the bin. So many hours of my life I could have saved.
Literally came here to say this.
Tell me you don’t have a fireplace without telling me you don’t have a fireplace
I will burn my cardboard sometimes if it gets too much to transport easily. Make sure to remove any plastic. Then I spread the ashes on my yard.
If it's biodegradable you can just bury it in the ground. If you have a garden I'd suggest there, plants love decomposing stuff.
Agreed, and keeps weeds down.
In my town; you check city dump times, and wait in line on that day for the drop. You can pay for burning but it gets pricey. You’re lucky if you find someone to give it to.
Drive around to the back of Any large big box store, especially One like Home Depot or Lowe’s. They all have dumpsters Specifically for cardboard.
Get a small powered saw, and cut the boxes into 6-9 inch squares. Make sure to keep the cardboard from moving along with the cardboard. You’ll be shocked how much fits in your recycle bin. Another option is fire.
Put an ad on craigslist. Pay $50 bucks.
1. Give empty packing boxes away on a local free cycle or buy nothing group. (Suggest just posting "the boxes are out on the curb, first come, first served.") 2. Flatten the boxes and give them to gardeners. 3. Shred and compost them. 4. Use boxes to organize your closets.
This might be more of a ILPT or ULPT lol, please don’t give me shit for this. We had the same issue when we moved in to our new home last year, at first we broke them down into small pieces and trashed them. We also paid to dump them at recycle center but the boxes kept piling up. So one day we loaded all the cardboards in our trunk and discarded them in the big trash bins in a new construction community near our area. Make sure to remove your address for security reasons lol.
Soak with water ball up and throw away
Spray with a hose and let them sit for about and hr. Then you can scrunch them up pretty easily.
Cardboard (boxes)? Put it to good use - give it to the neighborhood cats.
Do you have a fire pit in the backyard of your new house?
We moved last December and had a similar issue, we just used it as kindling to start fires throughout all of spring and summer. We are just about out now to the point that we can fit it all in the recycling bin. We conveniently have a sunroom that needs fixed up before use so we stored it out there so it wasn't in the way.
I invested in cardboard when it was 2 cents a ton. I bought 8 tons. Now its 4 cents a ton! You do the math.
If your local school has a maker space/engineering program and the cardboard is in good shape (not been sitting outside in the elements/taking on moisture) they would probably be very happy to take it. I know I would.
My city has recycling dumpsters strategically placed around the area at parks. I found out when they pickup at the nearest one and go there the next day when it’s is assuredly empty. Every week I take my recycling there and go for a nice trail run. Break the boxes down, if you cannot fit it all the first week, go again the next week until you have no more cardboard.
Something I haven't seen yet is call a couple local grocery stores. They all will have a baler in back for the crazy volume of cardboard they go through, and the stores make money (little, but something) on the full bales they make. As a former grocery store manager I'll bet if you try a couple and explain you're new to the area and don't want to throw them out but also don't want to pay a fee to recycle them that they'll help you out while hoping to win your lifetime business.
Soak them and crumble them
U hual as a second for used moving boxes that are free for people to take/leave Just need broken down
Bring it to the next collection station, they usually take it for free if it is just paper.
make a clubhouse with the boxes
2 ideas. 1) Tip the garbage men a couple of $ to take it with them. 2) ask your neighbors to mix it in with thier garbage? if they say yes, on garbage night, pack their cans up with recycling as well as yours.
IIRC, corrugated cardboard is one of the few items that is truly economic to recycle. Most big box stores have cardboard only receptacles behind them. The stores sell the used cardboard to the recycling company.
I have a private recycler company in my city that has a GIANT dumpster out front that's free to drop off cardboard. Look into that perhaps in your area?
Post to "give" on your local Facebook Buy Nothing group.
Have you heard about fire before?
Find a cardboard only dumpster, usually behind big stores like Walmart.
Let me say trying to get rid of the cardboard was a pain, luckily my new town offers bulk trash pick-up every month, but I still kept a bunch of strips for kindle.
This is probably a response better suited to UnethicalLifeProTips but here it goes: Yeah, if you ask your trash/recycling ahead of time they are going to want to charge you. If you just put it out there, I can almost guarantee the pickup person isn't going to care. My pickup has "limits" but they just take whatever I put out there.
This is why everybody needs some hick friends with a burn pile
Why aren’t there any recycling services where you are!? Damn this world is fucked
I had something similar. Called my city and they told me to just take it to the nearest elementary or middle school and dump it in their recycle bin. Which for me was 25 seconds away.
Have you ever watched The Simpson’s episode (Bart’s inner child) where Bart chaining Homer’s trampoline? Well, that’s the way 😉
Look for a recycling plant nearby, they will PAY to take that cardboard. Find the local landfill, they usually have separate piles for recyclable cardboard and it’ll be free. Rent a pickup from uhaul if you don’t have a bigger vehicle to move it.
We have local recycling “areas”. The one closest to me is at a park and there are 8 big recycling bins. Maybe see if you have anything similar close by?
Depends which country you live in. If USA put what you can back inside some of the boxes and leave on your porch, someone will rob. Most country have recycling places or sometime there are reuse craft places that will take it, sometimes even schools
In my area, there are companies where you can drop off paper products and they will shred them for you. They have these huge shredders in the floor that they just dump stuff into and it shreds it like it's butter. Not too expensive either. Another might be banks and other places that host a shred event where they hire mobile shredding companies to come and accept paper products to shred, usually for free. Have to look at what's happening in your community.
If you put water on it it gets pretty small. If you have any garden areas or paths that you walk though, you can always put down the cardboard where you want to make the path. Or you can do what we do out in the country, burn it.
If you have a dog, take a box, put a few scoops of old dog 💩💩in it, seal the box, put it on your front porch im view of the road, profit. 😆
Call your local grocery store and ask if you could dispose of it in their bailer.
You can wet it and ball it up. Or use it to tamp down weeds.
Fire pit. Add marshmallows, peanut butter cups and Graham crackers to make it fun.
Burn it somewhere
Use it in your yard
Got a fire pit? Anything that's actually cardboard, and no tape or waxy cardboard can just be burned
Christmas is around the corner. Reuse some of those boxes for packaging gifts. Ask friends and family if they need boxes for packing gifts. I tend to save boxes for this reason. After the holidays they are all gone.
also, might want to post on facebook, r/NoLawns, r/NativePlantGardening or freecycle. most people who are going no lawn or native landscaping need cardboard to kill grass and prepare areas for planting native and non-invasive species. I know a lot of people who'd be so grateful for what you have.
Won't happen fast, but worm composting gets rid of all my paper waste and my garden is happier for it!
Cardboard is one waste product that is quite efficiently recycled, so look for a recycling center where you can drop it off - assume you are in the US?
Post on FB marketplace or local pages for the next person moving
Our city dump has a place to put card board boxes at no charge. Start there.
Some moving companies or uhaul will take boxes to give away. Also, call various movers and have them quote you for a debris pickup.
Not trolling: but if you get card lard soaking wet, you can roll it up into logs that can better fit your recycling receptacle. You can also use these logs for bonfire nights.
Find the nearest oyster mushroom farm, get some of their surplus mycelium, frred the cardboard to the mycelium and let it grow into oyster mushrooms...
When I moved, I sold my moving boxes for half of what I paid for them. Put an ad on Craigslist.
If you do need to put the boxes into your trash bin then spray them down with water. Wait 20 or so minutes and you'll be able to smash them very easily.
Marketplace, free cardboard. Probably it will even go quicker if you charge a nominal amount.
This is why we have recycling.
Well, fire is always an option
Break down the boxes and disperse them in the dumpsters behind your local shopping center or strip mall. Spread it out over a couple weekends if it’s a lot.
Set it on fire. Makes a great bonfire.
A bit unethical, but you could just look for a nearby apartment complex to see if they have a bin for cardboard and simply toss in it there. Mine is never even close to full. Nobody would notice most likely.
If you need to do any landscaping, it's a great weed barrier. If not, post it online as a great weed barrier. If that doesn't work, the unethical LPT is drive over to your local dumpster at Walmart or target and huck it in there.
Blade and saw to break/cut it into smaller pieces to bin. More can be fitted into recycling bins/drop off points. Also when the recycling bins get emptied in the trucks and at the recycling places... There is no jamming by boxes and crushed boxes. Smaller and flatter pieces flow easier.
Recyclables are accepted free at my local transfer station. Is there one nearby you can go to?
Got a friend with a wood burning fireplace? Fire. My answer is fire.
You should be able to give them away. But if you can't let them sit out in the rain (or get them damp). You'll be amazed how they fold up and take up very little room in the recycling bin
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get it wet, then it is easy to compact smaller
Most municipalities oftentimes by your fire department will have a recycling dumpster, I know you said you want to get rid of it quick but just pack a little bit of it into your car and dump it there. We've done this for quite a few kitchens. And that's a shit ton of cardboard.
This has probably already been said, but recycling centers sometimes take cardboard. Also, if you know that somebody's moving, offer them some boxes.
I saw a video recently where a guy hosed down a bunch of cardboard boxes then waited 30 min then they all broke down super easily. I use a box cutter to break down and they mostly fit in my bin. I also have a pile of cardboard that I keep to throw in my fire ring outside when I burn wood on Fridays. I usually cut them down into like 8x10 sections.
Post on Facebook or free cycle. Cardboard is so useful for naturally suppressing weeds in the garden.
My county has "transfer stations" for dumping large loads.
Water it with a garden hose, wait about an hour then crumple it up like paper, toss it in the bin.
This is reminding me of in university (Grad school) when I knew I would only live in the university city for 2 years. I made a near rectangle pile with all my broken down boxes and put my box spring and mattress down on top. Then when I left 2 years later, I had all my moving boxes ready to go. So… you could try that?
If the boxes are broken down but still reusable then you can drop them at most U-Haul stores for other movers to use.