Notes from the corrugated underground.

We publish long-form articles roughly once a month. Each one is written by someone in the yard or the dispatch hut — which is to say, by someone who actually touches boxes every day.

Circularity · 8 min read

The 12 lives of a corrugated box (and where most of them die)

A forensic look at every stage of a corrugated box's existence, from a Canadian spruce forest to a grain elevator in Pueblo — and how many of those stages happen at our yard.

Economics · 6 min read

Why a used gaylord beats a new one, nine times out of ten

We pulled our own shipment records, asked an independent accountant to verify them, and wrote down the exact cost and carbon differences between new and reclaimed gaylords. The math is more lopsided than we expected.

Buying · 11 min read

The procurement officer’s guide to buying used gaylord boxes

A step-by-step buyer's checklist for procurement teams new to reclaimed corrugated. Dimensions, grading, freight, receiving procedures, and how to write the PO.

Operations · 7 min read

Contamination 101: what’s salvageable, what isn’t

Wax coatings. Label residue. Hazmat stickers. Food waste. Which of these render a corrugated box unsalvageable, and which can be fixed with a scraper and a cup of coffee.

Logistics · 5 min read

Freight class cheat sheet for used corrugated

Empty corrugated is annoyingly classified in the LTL world. Here's the cheat sheet we hand our dispatchers, so their quotes don't look like guesses.

Sustainability · 9 min read

The hidden cost of virgin corrugated nobody quotes

Forests. Fuel. Water. Effluent. Landfill tip fees. When you add up the externalities of a brand-new box, the unit price on a purchase order becomes a very misleading number.