Cardboard boxes used to be free, so what happened?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13082320

Acquiring cardboard boxes should be a no-brainer. Get them free from the local supermarket.
But more and more people are instead buying them from manufacturers, who are experiencing a boom.

Well none of the supermarkets round here offer them at all anymore so I can see why people do this.

Personally I prefer bin liners.After use you fold them and then use then in your bin.As for boxes I keep the ones such as my Tv etc come in as they maybe needed to send back items.After a while I accumulate enough to be useful for china etc.

There is probably some silly Euro Directive that prevents them giving you an empty box.

We still have them at our local Morrisons - very handy for used bottle storage before taking them to the recycling.

[Julian]

Companies can sell baled cardboard for around £100 / tonne, which even after investing in a baler can earn large companies £££

We give away boxes to our customers. Any left are removed free by our principal supplier who then bales it.

[Kymmy]

Recently asked most of the supermarkets round here for them and got them from all of them.

[Osem]

It's just a ploy by estate agents to boost the lower end of the property market...

[blackthorn]

Originally Posted by Julian

Companies can sell baled cardboard for around £100 / tonne, which even after investing in a baler can earn large companies £££

Your way off the mark there, we bale about 48tonne very 10 days and cardboard is at it lowest price than its ever been. As for plastic, I`ve been holding onto 20 tonne since november until last week when the price shot up. Got shut of it then.

[Julian]

Originally Posted by blackthorn

Your way off the mark there, we bale about 48tonne very 10 days and cardboard is at it lowest price than its ever been. As for plastic, I`ve been holding onto 20 tonne since november until last week when the price shot up. Got shut of it then.

Yep the price can vary hence why I said can.

[Stuart]

That's one thing that annoys me. Supermarkets expect us to do our bit for the environment by using reusable bags, but they could do so much more than they do.

For instance, whenever I have used my own bag on the self checkout, the machine has called over a checkout operator to verify that I had my own bags. Frankly, the time wasted waiting for the operator to come over and verify this isn't worth the extra nectar points.

Another thing supermarkets could do is provide paper bags. Yes, these are more expensive but that can be recycled a lot more easily than plastic bags.

They could also allow us to re-use their old boxes. Instead, they prefer to sell them to other companies which, while it is profitable for them, is not particularly environment friendly as it involves trucks taking the cardboard to the plant for recycling.

[Matth]

Maybe they're afraid of somebody falling over a carelessly placed cardboard box?

[iFrankie]

So would it be stealing if a bunch of them where outside of ASDA say?.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Matth

Maybe they're afraid of somebody falling over a carelessly placed cardboard box?

So. Have somewhere set aside for boxes that is kept tidy..