>> my house is no longer filled with endless cardboard boxes.

> You can throw in in the trash, you know :)

I prefer to build forts for my cats out of my leftover boxes.

I used to do that a few years ago for the neighbor's cats.

Trees were killed to make those boxes in the first place (do they have 100% recycled boxes yet?). Better to not order than to dump or even recycle the boxes.

Trees grow back faster than you might think. Especially the species and grades that go into papermaking. Nobody is cutting down old-growth forest and putting it into pulp. Unless they are a complete idiot - there's no money in it; it's been a while since I was doing my father's logging invoices, but his margins on spruce and fir or hardwood pulp were razor thin, after accounting to stumpage to the landowner and operating expenses. It was largely a way to get rid of the stuff that needed to be cut, but that he couldn't convince anyone to scale out for veneer or saw logs. A huge part of the pulpwood was also blowdowns, storm damage, and disease or insect culls.

> Better to not order than ...

Sure, but trees are not a good reason for that. I'll try to edit and add a better citation[0], but making cardboard boxes is more efficient than going into forests and cutting down trees.

[0]: http://www.internationalpaper.com/company/regions/north-amer...

I don't know but corrugated boxes is one thing that my local recycling service doesn't pickup... I'm not sure why.