Anyone here know a lot about cardboard?

[SZR48207]

I usually keep cardboard boxes when I order something online. They get flattened and are stored inside a closet, and then reused when I sell stuff on eBay.

But are these treated with chemicals like pesticides? Since boxes do occasionally sit inside large warehouses, it occurred to me that maybe they are treated to prevent mice from destroying them and getting to what's inside.

Just concerned that maybe this huge stack of cardboard is potentially toxic.

 

[Chris142]

Usually they use a bait station(s). I have never heard of them spraying for rodent conteol

 

[AutoMechanic]

I keep all mine as well to keep my collection of car parts and license plates in lol and they sit everywhere in the basement in my bedroom closet in the living room occasionally and never have noticed anything. I don’t think they are unless it’s a light waterproofing treatment because once I ordered a part and it arrived from RockAuto and the box was full of ants and the part box wasn’t so I think they were in the box and I disturbed them.

 

[S4Dad]

They can have silverfish, so we don't save any of our cardboard. With that said, we just bought 1,600 square feet of the stuff.

 

[Malo83]

Recycle bin.

 

[sloinker]

The linerboard and corrugated paper both have many chemicals when produced. The more innocuous ones are sizing and polymers. The are the 'cides. Algicide, fungicide etc. If you have white boxes they used to use chlorine which produced dioxins under heat. They pretty much went away from elemental chlorine and now use CLO2 or H2O2 for bleaching. There are other chemicals I didn't list as I don't remember their names. Rest assured that cardboard is a witches brew of chemicals and processed organic fibers. Probably not toxic enough to harm you unless you had a steady diet of it. Mice will chew into boxes but don't seem to eat them too much. Silverfish and earwigs like them more.

 

[ragtoplvr]

chinese cardboard is corosive. All our parts are encased in plastic, to prevent tarnish or outright rust from that cardboard. White is the worst.

 

[wpod]

I usually keep cardboard boxes when I order something online. They get flattened and are stored inside a closet, and then reused when I sell stuff on eBay.

But are these treated with chemicals like pesticides? Since boxes do occasionally sit inside large warehouses, it occurred to me that maybe they are treated to prevent mice from destroying them and getting to what's inside.

Just concerned that maybe this huge stack of cardboard is potentially toxic.

You own a car and are worried about potential toxins?