Here's some fun facts about packaging you most likely didn't know.

Take our packaging quiz and see how many questions you already knew the answer to. Or if you scanned this page, find your answer below!

 

Q. How many cardboard boxes does the average Briton receive each year?

A. The average Briton gets about 200 cardboard boxes delivered a year, according to The Independent in 2022.*

Q. How many boxes can you get out of a tree?

A. 1 tree = 151.6 boxes 

According to some clever calculations by packsize.com **

Multiple choice: Which is the most recycled product?

A. Paper packaging

B. Glass

C. Metals and aluminium

And the answer is A. Insights published by Two-sides (who we love), state that the "demand for sustainable packaging has never been greater. Paper packaging is not only the most recycled packaging material in Europe, it also utilises an exceptionally high amount of recycled material in its production." Lucky we love paper so much at Enviroflute. 

 

Multiple choice: How many cardboard boxes did we (UK) manage to amass in the pandemic?

A. 135 trillion cardboard boxes

B. 1.35m cardboard boxes

C. 135m cardboard boxes 

And the answer is C: UK households have amassed 135m cardboard boxes during the pandemic, keeping valuable raw material out of the recycling chain and pushing up packaging prices, according to the packaging specialist DS Smith. *** 

Q. What's our UK's recycling rate on cardboard packaging?

A. With a recycling rate of over 80%, corrugated cardboard has the best UK recycling record of any packaging material. This rate saves an area the size of Greater London from landfill every four months. 

 

Multiple choice. How many trees are cut down each year to meet the demand for paper for our whole planet?

A. 2 billion trees

B. 4 billion trees

C. 6 billion trees

And the answer is B. According to Selectra****, a whopping 4 billion trees are cut down each year to meet material demand for paper across the world. 

Multiple choice: How much have our European forests grown in the last 15 years? (you can round up to the nearest 1000km²...) 

A. 58,000km²

B. 61,000km²

C. 63,000km²

And the answer is A. Did you know that between 2005 and 2020, European forest cover grew by 58,390km²? Two-sides reported that this would be equivalent to an area larger than Switzerland. Or for those football fans amongst us, it would be approximately 1,500 football pitches of forest growth every day.

Links:

* The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cardboard-recycling-uk-amazon-b2171252.html

** Packsize: https://www.packsize.com/blog/sustainability/how-many-boxes-can-you-get-out-of-one-tree/

*** The Guardian

**** Selectra: Cardboard and Paper recycling