Whether it’s Tetrised inside a delivery truck, cradling a cappuccino or telescoping over a tampon, cardboard is a paradox.
It’s dull enough to put people to sleep on a podcast, yet so vital the Fed tracks it as a harbinger of future recessions. We use tons of it — tens of millions of tons annually, according to the EPA — but recycle so much that we waste 10 million tons less than when Oscar the Grouch sang “I Love Trash” on Sesame Street in 1970.