Found out most big box store cardboard is coated with fire retardant

I was reading this article from a packaging blog last night about how a ton of the cardboard you get from Amazon or Walmart has a chemical layer that makes it harder to burn. Apparently they add it during manufacturing to meet shipping regulations. So all those forts I've been building for my kid the last 2 years might actually be giving off weird fumes when I cut them with a hot knife. I checked the roll I had from a furniture delivery and it even said 'FR treated' in tiny print on the inside flap. Anybody else run into this with corrugated from regular shipments?

2 comments

2 Comments

viola17118d ago

Oh great, so my kid's been breathing in chemical fumes from his cardboard castle while I thought I was just being a cool parent? Guess I'll start buying him a proper wooden fort before he starts glowing in the dark.

stella_foster18d ago

Damn, that's actually unsettling. I've been using old cardboard boxes for my compost pile and garden mulch for years, never once thinking about what's soaked into them. Makes me wonder if that "organic" compost I was so proud of is actually leaching fire retardant into my tomatoes. Pretty ironic how we worry about tap water and then go dump Amazon boxes all over our vegetables.