Oxford is well known as the seat of learning and its libraries are home to over 12 million books and manuscripts. However, few as large as the giant cartonboard dictionary that landed on the city’s streets this week, as part of an ongoing campaign to get the word ‘cartonboard’ officially recognised in the Oxford English Dictionary. The larger-than-life five feet tall dictionary is made entirely of renewable, recyclable and biodegradable cartonboard.
In December 2019, the giant dictionary – complete with open ‘pages’ featuring a definition of cartonboard – was unveiled at the Charing Cross Library in London. Yet nearly two years on, and despite the fact that just 12% of UK citizens surveyed would choose a product packaged in plastic over cartonboard, the word remains excluded from the dictionary.
Pro Carton, the European Association of Carton and Cartonboard Manufacturers, is the organisation behind the campaign. A Pro Carton spokesperson said, “With our world in the grips of a climate emergency, it baffles me that the Oxford University Press can not see the importance and relevance of cartonboard. The exceptionally versatile material is renewable, recyclable and biodegradable, meaning it is the perfect example of the circular economy. We must keep the conversation going about sustainable packaging and we implore those at the Oxford English Dictionary to join us in this movement to change the world for the better.”
