Reuse and recycling are not the same number. We never add them together.
A single diversion percentage treats a container that gets nine more trips and a bale of fibre as equivalent outcomes. They differ by a factor of roughly three and a half on carbon, and the combined figure hides it.
Set up reporting
Tell us which standard your team reports against and we will format to it.
Straight to the grading floor at 9869 Meeks Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63132.
Or email sales@reboxesmarket.com. We have no phone line — dimensions and counts survive much better in writing.
Not sure of the size?
Fold a box in the browser, read off the cube and pallet fit, and send the spec straight through.
Monthly operational, quarterly strategic
Monthly statements cover material: tonnage reused, tonnage recycled by mill grade, residual with its composition, landfill avoided, CO₂e avoided and contamination rate. These are the numbers your waste and operations teams need to manage the stream.
Quarterly statements add the pool metrics: trips per container, population and attrition with coded reasons, cost per trip, and the repair mix coming off our bench. These are the numbers that tell you whether a reuse programme is actually working, and they are the ones nobody else sends.
Why contamination is on every statement
Including the periods when it is bad. Ours rose from 1.9 to 3.4 per cent over two quarters in 2023 after we underestimated a customer's waste stream, and we published it alongside the good figures. A metric you only report when it flatters you is not a measurement.
The residual line
Six per cent of our inbound has no reuse, conversion or recycling outlet: wax-coated board, food-contaminated board, heavily laminated stock, liner film and miscellaneous non-paper. We state that as a number with its composition rather than rounding it away inside a diversion percentage.
Two of those five lines are things a dock can reduce at source, which makes the residual report more actionable than the diversion report.
Audit trail
Every tonnage figure traces to a weigh ticket or a counted release. Every carbon figure states the coefficient used. We will send the underlying spreadsheet, including the freight allocation model, to anybody who asks — including your auditor, directly, without going through you.
Every field on a diversion statement.
Formatted so your team can lift it straight into GRI 306 or EPA WasteWise without re-cutting the numbers, and with the coefficients attached so an auditor can check them.
| Field | Unit | Frequency | Maps to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonnage reused | short tons | Monthly | GRI 306-4 (diverted) | Reported separately from recycling, always |
| Tonnage recycled | short tons | Monthly | GRI 306-4 | Split by mill grade |
| Tonnage residual | short tons | Monthly | GRI 306-5 (directed to disposal) | With composition by material |
| Landfill avoided | tons and yd³ | Monthly | EPA WasteWise | 80 lb/yd³ for loose OCC |
| CO₂e avoided | kg | Monthly | Scope 3 cat. 1 and 5 | Coefficients attached every time |
| Contamination rate | % | Monthly | Internal quality | Published whether or not it flatters us |
| Trips per container | count | Quarterly | Circularity indicator | Pooled accounts only |
| Population and attrition | count and % | Quarterly | Asset reporting | With a coded reason for attrition |
| Cost per trip | currency | Quarterly | Commercial | The number that proves the programme works |
What a bale is worth, and why.
Old Corrugated Containers is a traded commodity with published indices and a long history of violent swings. If you sell baled OCC without watching it, you are guessing.
| Grade | Specification | Moisture | Premium | Who buys it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISRI #11 — OCC | Sorted, baled corrugated. Up to 5% prohibitives, 5% other paper. | ≤ 12% | Baseline | Domestic containerboard mills |
| ISRI #12 — Double-sorted OCC | Double-sorted, ≤1% prohibitives. New corrugated cuttings excluded. | ≤ 10% | +15 – 30% | Mills running recycled liner |
| ISRI #13 — New corrugated cuttings | Unused box plant trim, no print or wax. | ≤ 10% | +40 – 60% | High-grade liner mills |
| Mixed paper | Unsorted paper grades including corrugated. | ≤ 12% | −40 – 70% | Varies; occasionally a disposal cost |
| Wet or contaminated | Outside specification on moisture or prohibitives. | > 15% | Rejected or deducted | Nobody |
Which framework each field serves.
We format to the one your team already files rather than inventing our own.
GRI 306
Waste disclosure. Our reused, recycled and residual tonnages map directly to 306-3, 306-4 and 306-5 without re-cutting.
EPA WasteWise
Voluntary US reduction reporting. Landfill avoided in tons and cubic yards, in the format the programme expects.
GHG Protocol Scope 3
Categories 1, 4, 5 and 12. Carbon figures with the coefficient attached so your consultant can substitute their own.
CDP supplier questionnaires
We complete these. We will not assert carbon neutrality, because we are not and do not buy offsets.
ISO 14001-aligned EMS
Our environmental management system follows the structure and is independently audited. We do not claim certification.
Internal cost accounting
Cost per trip and trips per container, which is the pair that justifies the programme internally when the sustainability case alone will not.
Reporting, in practice.
How soon after month end do statements arrive?
Within ten business days. If a mill settlement is outstanding we issue the tonnage and flag the value line as provisional rather than delaying the whole statement.
Can you report by site?
Yes, where volumes justify separating them. Site-level reporting makes contamination attributable rather than averaged, which is usually where the actionable information is.
Will you talk to our auditor directly?
Yes, and we prefer it. Passing data through a customer adds a translation step that helps nobody.
What if we need a format you do not produce?
Tell us the template. Most requests are a re-arrangement of fields we already produce, and we would rather build it once than have your team re-key numbers every month.
Do you report on material we did not buy from you?
On material we collect, yes — that is the stream we can actually measure. We will not report on packaging we never handled, which rules out the whole-of-business figures some suppliers offer.
Is there a charge for reporting?
No. It comes with collection or a managed pool. Charging for the evidence that a service worked has always struck us as a strange way to run a business.