Cardboard shortage leads to a tripling in prices

Cardboard shortages are having a serious knock on effect on suppliers and some retailers with prices “tripling” over the last year, reports Wired 

The changes in consumer shopping patterns due to the lockdown has helped cause a shortage of cardboard. The proportion spent online in the UK soared to 35.2% in January 2021, the highest on record; this compares with 19.5% reported in January 2020 by the Office of National Statistics. Christmas 2020 was a “record-breaking” holiday season for companies like Amazon, who delivering 1.5 billion packages worldwide over the festive period. In the UK, there were an extra 200 million home deliveries over the Christmas period, according to the Recycling Association.

Some retailers and suppliers have complained that they are unable to source cardboard boxes at all. The price of corrugated cardboard, which is old boxes that can be reused to make new ones, has trebled in the last year from $25 a ton to $75.