The Field Journal
Notes from the yard.
Long-form writing from inside the Rockford operation — grading, freight, sustainability math, customer stories, and the small operational quirks we'd otherwise lose to memory. Updated as the yard learns.
The archive
Every piece, by year.
202514 pieces
- November 28The honesty test for a grade — how we score itSustainability5 min
- November 4Recycling glossary: ten terms warehouses get wrongHow-to6 min
- October 16What we learned from a botched closed-loop trialCustomer story7 min
- September 23Bale density: the boring number that mattersOperations5 min
- September 4The customer who never sent two POsCustomer story4 min
- August 15Why we don't have a phone number, year three of the experimentOperations6 min
- July 9How we hired our refinishing line managerYard life5 min
- June 17The bills of lading that ate our AugustOperations5 min
- May 29A field note from the Joliet polymer plantField notes6 min
- May 4Reading a pallet at a glanceHow-to4 min
- April 8Why we publish our diversion rateSustainability5 min
- March 12The forklift coaching session we run every TuesdayYard life5 min
- February 18Why our invoices have a "rescued from" fieldOperations4 min
- January 22The half-truckload trap, and how to avoid itOperations5 min
20248 pieces
- December 2Liner spec by product: a starter listHow-to8 min
- October 14The October when we ran out of triple-wallOperations7 min
- August 19How we name our truck routesYard life4 min
- July 4A buyer's letter that changed how we quoteCustomer story6 min
- May 23What an Illinois winter does to corrugatedField notes5 min
- April 9Closed-loop programs that actually paid offCustomer story8 min
- February 27ESG reporting for the practical packaging managerSustainability10 min
- January 18The five worst gaylord storage mistakesHow-to6 min
20238 pieces
- December 4Why we stopped selling D-gradeOperations6 min
- October 19How to send us a good photo of a stackHow-to4 min
- September 8Inventory ghosts: why "in stock" is a moving numberOperations5 min
- July 30The case for octagonal over rectangularHow-to7 min
- June 12What a 3PL really wants from a box vendorCustomer story6 min
- April 21The kraft commodity curve, explainedMarket9 min
- March 8Cardboard humidity: the silent strength killerHow-to8 min
- January 26Why our forklifts have namesYard life4 min
A word about the journal
Written by people who load forklifts.
No marketing team. No outsourced copywriter. Every piece on this page is written by someone whose name shows up on a dispatch board. The voice will feel different from a typical company blog — that's the point.
If something we write is wrong, or out of date, or hits you the wrong way, email hello@illinoisboxesrecycle.com and we'll either fix it or argue our case in the next post.