UsedCardboardBoxes.com: Trading waste for value

By CD White

What could possibly inspire a successful management consultant dealing with Fortune 500 clients to leave it all behind for the chance to manage the fate of used cardboard boxes? In the case of Marty Metro, Founder and CEO of UsedCardboardBoxes.com, it was a moving van.

“I’d been working with massive technology systems,” explained Metro, “and was dealing with big companies doing multi-million dollar upgrades – but I couldn’t explain to anyone exactly what it was I did.”

Tired of seeing people’s eyes glass over while he talked about his work, Metro had an existential moment. “I realized that if I left the job people wouldn’t even notice – the job would go on – whereas I wanted to do something that mattered.” While pondering how he could use his talents to make a difference in the big picture, Metro noticed a van full of moving boxes while on a trip with his wife and began wondering what happened to all those boxes.

That moment resulted in the birth of UsedCardboardBoxes.com (UCB), a national, earth-friendly technology company based in Los Angeles. The company buys truckloads of quality used boxes above the scrap recycling rate from large companies that would otherwise recycle or toss them. They then sell them to companies and consumers at less than wholesale rate as a low-cost, earth-friendly alternative to buying new.

Using its national infrastructure to buy/sell used boxes by the moving kit, pallet or truckload, UCB diverts valuable cardboard from landfills and prolongs its "life-cycle." This profitable secondary marketplace for used boxes is a perfect example of how US companies can find hidden value in available used products, rather than producing more or throwing away what’s not needed.

UBC works with manufacturers, distributors, retailers and new box makers to “rescue” quality used boxes and any misprints, overruns and/or customer returns. UCB then inspects, sorts and inventories these boxes to be resold at deep discounts on their website. Thanks to a strategic relationship with UPS, UCB offers free shipping on all online moving box orders.

After years of providing technology solutions to major corporations, Metro now applies the same best practices and state-of-the-art technologies to UCB and other companies who have similar values. “Today what keeps me going is that I