I had a suggestion from a friend of mine that I show the breakdown of materials in a Squirrel mail order shipment. So here are the details a typical Squirrel order of 10 planes.

This isn’t scientific but it gives a good ballpark.

Total Weight of shipment: 266g

The Squirrels  weighed 20.3,  20.0, 19.1, 20.6, 20.3, 18.7, 18.5, 18.5, 19.1 and 18.2 grams. So that comes to a total of 193.3g. The average is 19.3g

Reused cardboard: 67.3g (check out the box cutting machine).

Shipping label: A label seems to be about 0.9g. There are six per sheet of paper and the sheet came out to 4.5g.  So .75g is probably a good number to use.

Glue (Sides): The weight of the box with clothes pins was 90.6g. The clothes pins were 22.0g. The cardboard was 67.3g. So that leaves 1.3g.

Glue (Seam): 0.65g

Glue (Label): The box was 262g without the label and label tape. So that means there is 4 grams for all that. We know the label is 1.3g so there’s 2.7g for glue and tape. So I think 1g of glue and 1.7g for that tape is close.

Tape: 1.7g for the label and

Squirrel Packaging: 13.2g for 10 bags. So that’s 1.32g each.

Cardboard is recycled but why not get more use of it before it goes to be recycled?

This takes a bit of labor but if you’re organized you can get it under control.

First I try and find a cardboard source where I can contact the people who are using the cardboard. I then try and intercept it before it goes to the curb. That way I can find a point in their process where it’s the same box is coming out of their production.

Then I can line them up, cut them apart (all at once) into flat pieces and slice them to the size required for the “box-o-matic” that makes the boxes. You can see a clip of this machine further down.