Difference between cardboard and pasteboard

My recycling depot has a new sign that specifically says they do not want pasteboard. I'm looking up pasteboard but not grasping what it is in relationship to cardboard. Can someone 'splain?

This is pulled directly out of my . . . hat, so take it for what it's worth.

When most people say "cardboard," they're thinking specifically of corrugated cardboard. That is, two outer layers pasted onto an inner layer of wavy. While a whole piece of cardboard can be quite stiff and take a solid load, it's also easily shredded, and the sum of its parts are less than its whole.

Pasteboard, the backing of tablets and such, is not corrugated. Therefore, it's much thicker and stronger than cardboard, and it's probably really hard on the shredders used in a recycling facility. So, they don't want it.

Ah, okay. That makes sense.

I am ashamed to say I think I've been giving them pasteboard in with the cardboard.

It's interesting how little information about the paperboard industry is available on the web.

In my experience (15 years in the corrugated industry) it's more about money than anything else. The prices for OCC (old corrugated container) and SOP (sorted office paper) varies considerably but OCC is usually quite a bit higher than SOP (at some points as much as double the price).

It gets even better as prices fluctuate between bailed OCC and loose OCC, as well as sorted and mixed office paper.

In the recycling process both items are loosely shredded and then boiled to free up the fiber from the web. OCC fibers are larger / coarser than regular paper fibers so they can be recycled more times before they completely break down. The average I have heard is that each virgin fiber can be recycled 8 times.

If you're interested I can call my recycler Monday (actually I will probably call him next week anyway, I have a bin of plastic ready to go) and get some current prices, looking them up on the internet proved to be difficult and the results were pretty mixed.