As our love affair with online shopping grows, so too does the amount of cardboard boxes collecting in our garbage bins. Unfortunately USA Today has revealed that Americans are sending more of the corrugated cardboard to landfills than they are to recycling plants, as was the trend in previous years.

While cardboard use has experienced an eight percent jump over the last five years, according to the American Forest & Paper Association, cardboard recycling has experienced a significant decrease with 300,000 fewer tons of the material recycled in the U.S. last year than in the year before.

“We need those boxes to come back. The alternative is trees," said Bill Moore of Moore & Associates, a paper recycling industry consultant in Atlanta.

There are a few explanations for the decline in recycling, according to the report. First, the report reveals that consumers consider breaking up the boxes to be a hassle. Likewise, the report also suggests that roughly 40 percent of Americans don’t have access to curbside recycling programs.

Another explanation, according to the research suggests that China, who is a major customer of corrugated boxes from the U.S., has altered its buying habits.

“China has stopped buying, and the recyclers in the United States can’t find enough buyers, so some of that goes to landfill. And that’s not eco-friendly at all,” said Hannah Zhao, a senior economist.