Box sharing and green products

The value of U-Haul moving and storage boxes goes beyond their strength and ability to protect our customers' possessions while moving. A U-Haul box is so sturdy that it can be reused again and again. Made of up to 90 percent post-consumer content, this also makes U-Haul boxes the best choice for the cost-conscious and recycle-conscious consumer. U-Haul boxes hold up so well, customers regularly save them for reuse, give them to a friend or relative who is moving, use them in organizing their garage, boxing a gift, shipping an item, storage, etc. Many customers are even able to resell them!

Take A Box, Leave A Box

U-Haul also offers a drop location in all company stores and many independent U-Haul Dealers where customers can drop off their reusable moving boxes for other customers to take and use for FREE. This is a way for customers to assist one another in reducing moving expenses while promoting reuse of the product, which is always preferable to recycling.

The U-Haul Box Exchange allows our customers to trade, sell or buy reusable boxes and moving supplies. This is another form of source reduction. With every reuse of a box, a new one is kept from entering the cycle.  

U-Haul Ready-To-Go Box

U-Haul Ready-To-Go Boxes provide another environmentally-friendly and economical option to move your home or office, as well as a convenient way to store your valuables. No assembly or packing tape required. These sturdy, plastic moving boxes can be shared hundreds of times before recycled. Simply reserve your boxes for pick up at a local U-Haul location with inventory, keep them as long as you need and return to the same U-Haul store for the next customer. Click here to reserve yours today.

                            Furniture Pads

In 1997, U-Haul collaborated with its furniture pad vendor and Lee Jeans Co. to pioneer the use of denim scraps to make our rental furniture pads. The process reclaims preconsumer textile waste cut from material used to manufacture jeans. Today, the pads are a special composite of cuttings from a variety of textiles, including denim from jeans. Once reclaimed, the scraps are combined in a process that creates attractive nonwoven pads that are durable, soft, cushiony, colorfast, thick and big enough to protect our customers' belongings.

With demand for furniture pads that requires U-Haul to purchase over a million new pads each year, the decision to use the regenerated cotton scraps allows the annual diversion of 2.4 million pounds of recyclable materials from landfills. In addition to reducing filler in landfills, no additional pesticides or dyes are used and no additional water consumption is required to grow more cotton. These extra benefits to the environment are often overlooked.

We are extremely proud of this product. The environmental benefits that are achieved while providing the best furniture pad in the industry for our customer, plus the fact that we can keep the cost low for our customers, makes a win-win situation.

   Biodegradable Packing Peanuts

For more than 15 years now, U-Haul has offered a biodegradable packing peanut made primarily of corn and potato starch. The peanuts degrade/dissolve in water. By switching exclusively to biodegradable peanuts in lieu of polystyrene (Styrofoam) peanuts, U-Haul customers have been able to help keep more than 7,750,762 cu ft of Styrofoam out of landfills. That translates to more than 1,400 railroad boxcars!

Reducing waste and preventing pollution at the source can lead to a higher degree of environmental protection and are cornerstones of the principles of sustainability. Pollution-prevention measures reduce subsequent costs for disposal or cleanup, with the resulting decrease in any potential environmental impact from the Company’s products, services, processes and facilities.