And in order to keep the cardboard industry — and practically all other business sectors — thriving, that process must continue to cycle through.
The demand for boxes has arisen for other reasons besides the Christmas rush. During the early stages of the pandemic, there was a boom in demand for e-commerce and home delivery – a 33% rise in 2020 over 2019* (equating to 74 boxes per person), and all of those deliveries required packing and boxes created from its component: fiber. Demand and consumption rose, while supply—of which 85% is powered by recycled domestic paper fiber—fell to less than 6 million tonnes nationwide, creating a chicken-and-egg situation.
