Jamacod: i'm with an ow/op store and I can tell you that we've had great success with cardbord recycling. If you get in touch with the right people, they will charge you nothing for doing it. As a matter of fact, our ow/op gets a monthly check equaling to 1/3 what these people get for the cardboard. Sure it's not much, but it is more then he would have been getting for just throwing it way, and it is more enviromentaly helpfull!!
Morris: I've been told that in some cities, including places near my home, have laws addressing this. Specifically, retailers and fast feeders are required by law to separate cardboard from the other flotsam and jetsam. As described in other posts, the cardboard is kept in a separate bin, which is usually a decommissioned trash dumpster that has been painted green. It makes sense, since about half the volume of refuse is cardboard at the hell-hole in which I once worked.
I don't know how this law, if it actually exists, is enforced. Do police investigators have to go "dumpster diving?" Perhaps it's to keep dumping prices in Pennsylvania low, since Pennsylvania landfills do a thriving business importing garbage from about a dozen nearby states.
Anyway, the trash dumpster and cardboard dumpster are emptied once a week. Inevitably, the cardboard dumpster is filled to overflowing, and the extra boxes are either pitched in the trash or stacked alongside the dumpster. This is because nobody (besides me) would risk breaking fingernails to flatten the boxes! Therefore, I was usually assigned the unenviable task of flattening the extra boxes and cramming them in the appropriate dumpster. In retrospect, that wasn't any worse than the usual tasks at my job, and the lack of a manager breathing down my neck for half an hour was pleasant.
Hugh Morris
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