Cardboard is a generic term for heavy-duty paper-based products having greater thickness and superior durability or other specific mechanical attributes to paper; such as foldability, rigidity and impact resistance. The construction can range from a thick sheet known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple corrugated and flat layers. Despite widespread general use in English and French, the term cardboard is deprecated in commerce and industry as not adequately defining a specific product. Material producers, container manufacturers, packaging engineers, and standards organizations, use more specific terminology.
Various types of cards are available, which may be called "cardboard". Included are: thick paper or pasteboard used for business cards, aperture cards, postcards, playing cards, catalog covers, binder's board for bookbinding, scrapbooking, and other uses which require higher durability than regular paper.
Paperboard
Paperboard is a paper-based material, usually more than about ten mils thick. It is often used for folding cartons, set-up boxes, carded packaging, etc. Configurations of paperboard include:
Containerboard, used in the production of corrugated fiberboard.
Folding boxboard, comprising multiple layers of chemical and mechanical pulp.
Solid unbleached board, typically made of unbleached chemical pulp.
White lined chipboard, typically made from layers of waste paper or recycled fibers, most often with two to three layers of coating on the top and one layer on the reverse side. Because of its recycled content it will be grey from the inside.
Binder's board, a paperboard used in bookbinding for making hardcovers.
Currently, materials falling under these names may be made without using any actual paper.
Corrugated fiberboard is a combination of paperboards, usually two flat liners and one inner fluted corrugated medium. It is often used for making corrugated boxes for shipping or storing products. This type of cardboard is also used by artists as original material for sculpting.
Recycling
Most types of cardboard are recyclable. Boards that are laminates, wax coated, or treated for wet-strength are often more difficult to recycle. Clean cardboard "is usually worth recovering, although often the difference between the value it realizes and the cost of recovery is marginal". Cardboard can be recycled for industrial or domestic use. For example, cardboard may be composted or shredded for animal bedding.
History
The term has been used since at least 1848, when Anne Brontë mentioned it in her novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The Kellogg brothers first used paperboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later, when they began marketing it to the general public, a heat-sealed bag of wax paper was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This development marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box. The Kieckhefer Container Company, run by John W. Kieckhefer, was another early American packaging industry pioneer. It excelled in the use of fibre shipping containers, particularly the paper milk carton.
