Five Points About the Corrugated Industry
1. It’s huge.
A $20 billion a year industry. More than 90 percent of all products in the U.S. and Canada– and that’s everything from basketballs to Nike, from computers to appliances – every imaginable product known to mankind is delivered or displayed in corrugated at some point in its life cycle. All those web-based businesses – like E-Bay and Amazon.com -- would be lost in cyberspace without corrugated to move product to the purchaser.
2. It’s everywhere.
No matter where you want to live, there’s a box manufacturer nearby. There are some 1,550 box plants throughout North America.
3. Corrugated is the single most dominant force in the packaging world.
30% of all packaging dollars is in corrugated. The next closest is cans at 19%.
4. Corrugated is a good guy to our environment.
74% of all corrugated products is recycled. In fact, the industry depends on “old corrugated boxes” to make news ones. The demand for recycled corrugated is so high that you will not find old boxes at stores anymore. They are bundled and sold back to the mills to make new boxes.
5. It’s fast-paced and challenging, with lots of variety.
On the manufacturing side, you may work on a package for Nike one day and Revlon the next. Corrugated packaging is the final answer for just about every type of packaging need. It’s durable, versatile, lightweight and – most important – innovative!
Why has the corrugated industry thrived for more than 100 years as other industries have slipped into oblivion?
Corrugated is an agile product. It can morph into new structures to protect and promote new products or traditional products in new, unique ways.
*Obtained from The International Corrugated Packaging Foundation (ICPF)