New York City supers are begging you to break down your cardboard boxes

The exploding popularity of e-commerce has created a big inconvenience for New York City supers, who say they spend too much time breaking down cardboard boxes.

Sanitation rules require cardboard boxes to be broken down for collection and tied with twine or wrapped with tape into bundles no taller than 18 inches. Most tenants ignore that requirement and simply leave Amazon boxes and other packages for building supers to deal with.

“Everything’s coming in boxes," said Joel Valdez, 41, a super on Broadway and Bleecker Street, in Manhattan. "The food, everything. So, we're having a hard time."

Jose Ross, a super on East Third Street in the East Village, said younger tenants who “just don't care” and “feel privileged” to discard boxes without breaking them down were the main culprits.

“They buy everything on Amazon, and brand new,” he said.

Ross added that the old-timers were more helpful. “Some of the older folks feel bad for us," he said. "They start breaking it down for us, and we stop and we say, ‘OK, we'll do it.'"

The share of all categories of paper in the city's waste stream has steadily declined over the last two decades, according to a 2023 sanitation department study — but cardboard is a big exception.

In 2005, the average household put out 35 pounds of cardboard for recycling. In 2023, that number climbed to more than 97 pounds.

The study also found that wealthier New Yorkers disposed of more cardboard.

Even more cardboard is likely on the way. This fall, more types of alcohol will be eligible for shipping directly to consumers across the state.

Sanitation department spokesperson Vincent Gragnani said paper and cardboard that enters the recycling stream is taken to a plant on Staten Island that processes the material into even more boxes.

“All material that we collect as part of our regular residential paper/cardboard recycling is brought to Pratt Industries on Staten Island, where it is processed and turned into fresh rolls of paper or cardboard, all within days — even hours — of it being set at the curb," he said.

Valdez said he often snaps photos of unbroken boxes to send to tenants to remind them to break down cardboard they plan to discard.

“They don't know how to recycle," he said. "They don't know how to break the boxes. I'm trying to be a teacher to my tenants."