Is Packing Paper Recyclable? Ways to Recycle and Reuse

Packing paper has several uses. For your ecommerce business, packing paper can help make or break your product—literally. It’s a commonly-used packing material that helps protect your product inside its shipping box.

We’ve said before that your shipping box is the first physical impression your customer has of your brand. If you already have that impression covered by using a custom shipping box, your next point of contact with your customer is when they open your shipping box.

That’s where packing paper comes in. You want your customer to open your shipping box to a neatly-packed and intact product. This means you’ll need to pack your shipping box tightly so there is no extra space for your product to shift and move around during the shipping process.

But given that you’ll be using a lot of packing paper to ship out each and every order, you’ll be giving your customer a lot of packaging to get rid of. To help your customer more conveniently get rid of their packaging, we’ll answer the question: is packing paper recyclable?

Types of Packing Paper

There are several types of packing paper. Choose from kraft brown, newsprint, parchment paper or tissue packing paper, out of many more. Of all the options available, kraft and newsprint are both biodegradable and typically made from recycled materials.

Is Packing Paper Recyclable?

If your customers can’t find any use for the packing paper they received after opening your package, they’ll need to get rid of it. The best way to get rid of packing paper is to recycle it, because yes, packing paper is recyclable! But it depends on what kind of packing paper you used.

Fancy tissue paper that is heavily-printed or glitter-decorated cannot be recycled. Simple white or brown packing paper is fully recyclable and is accepted for curbside recycling. All your customer would have to do is place it into their recycling bin or take it to their nearest recycling center.

Brandable Box offers recycled packing paper made from unprinted newsprint. Pack your products securely in your custom shipping box by wrapping your product in paper, then using extra packing paper as void fill for your box.

What is Newsprint Made From?

Newsprint paper is typically made from recycled materials, making it an eco-friendly option for packing paper.

How to Reuse Packing Paper

Pass these tips on to your customer for how to reuse their packing paper.

You can use packing paper for your garden or compost pile. To use in compost, shred the packing paper or tear it into strips and add it to your compost bin. Paper is a carbon-rich composting material and provides the energy microbes need to thrive.

You’ll also need plant matter, or green matter, for your compost pile. A good rule of thumb is to have about four times as much carbon material as green matter in your compost pile.

You can also use your packing paper to make mulch. Tear up your packing paper into strips and put a layer around the base of each plant in your garden. Cover the paper with grass clippings, leaves, and soil.

Create seedling pots. Fold packing paper to create small bowls for seedlings. Brandable Box’s recycled packing paper is also biodegradable and can break down over time, so you can plant them directly into the soil once seedlings have sprouted.