What you didn't know about products

The world is now a huge business.  It is driven by the world economy and multiple economies that create our world economy.  The amount of products that are created and sold every year is staggering.  What is also amazing is the amount of packaging that is involved in creating those cool looks that surround the products. It is all amazing to look at and some of them are psychologically created to make you want to buy them.  The little packaging things that are created are also mostly not necessary and I wanted to go over some of the facts that these excess product supplies create and the damage they may be causing on our world as a whole. 

Cardboard boxes are the first thing I want to talk about and the amount of this product that is used on a yearly basis. This is one of the most used products on the planet for goods being produced.  In the United States and in Europe almost 80% of all products are packaged in cardboard boxes.  What does this mean for how much is created. Well that number is around 400 Billion square feet.  This number is absolutely mind blowing and should be considered a disgrace to our world.  This is all just packaging and not the products themselves.  So 400 Billion Square feet are created only to showcase products.

What this means is that paper and cardboard creates up to 41% of the world's solid waste.  Which means we are simply creating a world filled with garbage that never needed to be made. When it is all said and done we cut down nearly 1 Billion Trees a year to produce this amount of product coverings.  It is staggering and we are not replacing that many or recycling the products used. That is why we are creating an unsustainable environment.

Now I know that these numbers seem insane and I am not going to tell the world to stop using paper overnight, but it should make you think twice about your purchasing habits.  It should push us to strive to find a different way to package items and use less paper and thus cut down on all the waste and trees being cutdown.  Now I am not against the use of paper or trees, but the number we are cutting down and the amount going to waste is what needs to stop or drastically be lessened.  I want a sustainable economy and air supply from our trees.

Making a Box Fort

Not many people have ever said that making a box fort could save your life.  Most would imagine it was an absurd thing to say and completely untrue.  I would have to beg to differ.  Traveling to the more liberal states I have found that living in a box is more normal than one would imagine.  Literally thousands of people are living on the streets in LA in cardboard boxes. So having the skill to build one is important and could even save your life if you are found homeless for a period of time.  So where do you begin on the journey of building a box.

I first started my interest with making cardboard boxes into forts or home when I was young.  I was invited by a friend to visit a local church who had created a box maze through their entire church.  It was an incredible creation.  They had taken thousands of boxes and brought them together to create a masterpiece of creation.  The scale must have taken them a week or more to accomplish.  There were boxes taped together in a mired of ways. They were stacked to create jumps and ladders and even small castles.  There were complete black spots where obstacles had been created to manoeuvre around.  There were dangling things mean to believe you were in a spiders web.  It was truly a masterpiece and incredible. That was where my inspiration came from and where is stems from today.

So do you need to go out and start on a scale of that level? Not at all. Instead, start small and work your way up.  If you have kids then you can start to build for them.  Ask them what they like.  Do they like, tree forts, or castles or Barbie play houses. Take the time to understand their passions and then make it come to life.

Start by visiting your local grocery stores and see about picking up some boxes for free. Then go and get lots and lots of tape.  Not just your regular scotch tape. Go and get packing tape.  They are some different kidneys and the industrial tape that you have to wet first to get the adhesive malleable I would avoid. This tape is hard to use and leaves you very sticky. If your kids are helping it will simply create a nightmare to clean up.  So grab normal tape, and start putting them together with your kinds until you have created a passion of theirs. Enjoy!

Steel used to cut boxes

The title is a bit interesting and most would think that steel is designed for manufacturing processes. It is but there are lots of applications for different types of steels. There are hundreds of types of tool steel literally designed to make took and cut our different types of material. This is the biggest application of using steels, but for the average worker in a factory a different use is needed.  Many employees that work at your average factory end up cutting boxes and tape consistently each day.  It is a normal part of their lives and they are considered the backbone of the American economy. 

So what do these average factory workers need when it comes to steel in the knives they use to cut boxes and tape?  It depends on the location of the factory and the amount of cutting each individual does every day.  The average worker begins by simply going out and purchasing a cheap knife that they think will work.  

Generally, those workers are talked into purchasing a product based on looks. They will pick up a cool look blade with designs that are appealing to them and not look to what the product is made out of.  Materials are extremely important when cutting cardboard boxes because they are actually very dense and cause lots of wear on the steel of knives. 

So what does this mean in realty when working.  If you are cutting cardboardboxes and you are using an inexpensive knife, you can expect to cut anywhere from 4 to 10 boxes before your knife is essentially dull.  This can become a problem for workers who are found cutting anywhere from 20 to 100 boxes per day. So purchasing a inexpensive knife based on looks can lead to bad performance and even reflect on your daily output if you are unable to keep with the demand put on your individual task of cutting boxes.

It is important to purchase a steel that will outperform the needs you require on a daily basis.  Preferably you would like a knife that can work for weeks at a time with no maintenance so you don’t spend extra time from you day to sharpen it.  So purchasing a high quality knife can keep your job more secure and allow you to spend less time sharpening and more time working.  So choose a high quality knife with high edge retention when thinking about a factory working knife.