When corrugated board became the star of the festival
DS Smith brought a rock-inspired corrugated board project to Make it! Race it! Recycle it! 2026 in Timișoara, showing how a packaging material can become part of a public sustainability event, a creative design challenge and a memorable experience for visitors.
The 10th anniversary edition of Make it! Race it! Recycle it! was held on 6 June 2026 in Parcul Alpinet, Timișoara, on the shore of the Bega River. Organised by EcoStuff Romania, the event brought together companies, schools, NGOs and creative teams to build boats from recyclable materials and race them in front of the public.
For DS Smith, the event became a chance to present Cartonica — a rock-themed project developed around a corrugated board racing boat, a cardboard stage, musical instruments and a festival-style visual concept.
The result was not a traditional packaging display.
It was a public show built around creativity, recycling, teamwork and the unexpected possibilities of corrugated board.
Photo caption: DS Smith turned the Make it! Race it! Recycle it! 2026 event into a cardboard rock show, presenting the Cartonica concept with a stage, instruments and a motorcycle made from corrugated board.
A city festival where cardboard became the hero
The idea behind Make it! Race it! Recycle it! is simple:
build a boat from recyclable materials, race it on the river, and celebrate reuse in a way people can actually see.
Over the years, the event has brought together more than 130 crews from 65 companies, schools and NGOs.
For the public, it looks like a fun city festival.
For the teams, it is a creative challenge.
For the packaging industry, it is something even more interesting: a reminder that corrugated board does not always need a factory wall around it to prove its value.
Sometimes it needs a river, a crowd and a crazy idea.
DS Smith went full rock mode
This year, DS Smith did not just build a boat.
The company created a full rock-inspired experience.
Its boat, called Cartonica, came with a complete visual world around it: cardboard guitars, microphones, drums and a motorcycle.
The DS Smith area looked less like a packaging display and more like a mini rock festival.
The team dressed like rockstars.
The installation looked like a stage.
And corrugated board suddenly had attitude.
It was simple, visual and easy to understand even for people who know nothing about packaging.
Photo caption: A cardboard rock stage by DS Smith, featuring guitars, drums, speakers and stage design made from corrugated board — showing how packaging material can become public art.
Cartonica did not only look good
The best part is that Cartonica was not just a decoration.
It raced on the Bega River.
According to the DS Smith team, the project was developed by its Design & Innovation teams in Timișoara and Ghimbav, who worked on the idea, prototypes and final construction.
That detail matters.
Because this was not only a funny cardboard object for photos. It had to be designed, built, tested and then pushed onto the water in front of a public audience.
Cartonica achieved:
1st Place — Speed Race
1st Place — Saved by the Bell Race
2nd Place — Artistic Impression
2nd Place — Theme
So the story is not only: “Look, cardboard can be beautiful.”
The story is stronger:
corrugated board can be beautiful, engineered and competitive — even in a festival boat race.
Photo caption: Cartonica on the Bega River: DS Smith’s rock-inspired corrugated board boat was not only a creative installation, but also a racing entry at Make it! Race it! Recycle it! 2026 in Timișoara.
Why people remember this better than a recycling report
A report about recycling can be important.
But a cardboard boat racing on a river is much harder to forget.
A child sees it and understands immediately that a material can have a second life.
A family takes a photo near a cardboard rock stage.
A team celebrates when its boat reaches the finish line.
No complicated technical explanation is needed.
That is the power of events like this.
They make sustainability visible.
They make it playful.
They make it human.
The environmental point should not be missed
This is also where the story becomes more than entertainment.
Europe has spent years building a strong recycling system for paper and board. According to CEPI, paper-based packaging in Europe is recycled at around 87%, based on Eurostat data. The wider European paper value chain also reached a 75.1% recycling rate in 2024.
That is why corrugated board is such an interesting material for public events like this.
It is familiar.
It is lightweight.
It is easy to shape.
It can carry strong visual ideas.
And, when properly collected, it can return into the recycling stream instead of becoming another single-use display material.
This does not mean every creative object is automatically perfect from an environmental point of view. Design still matters. Coatings, plastics, mixed materials and decorations can make recycling harder.
But events like Make it! Race it! Recycle it! show the right direction: use materials that people understand, keep them visible, and make reuse and recycling part of the story from the beginning.
From packaging to public emotion
In daily business, corrugated board is usually discussed through numbers:
strength, weight, paper grades, print quality, delivery, recyclability.
All of that matters.
But here, the same material was judged differently.
Could it float?
Could it make people smile?
Could it become a stage?
Could it tell a sustainability story without a PowerPoint presentation?
Cartonica answered yes.
And that is why the project works.
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From dinosaurs to rock music
DS Smith has already used this event as a platform for creative storytelling.
In 2024, the company presented Cartonosaurus Rex, a dinosaur-themed boat that became one of the highlights of the event. The team created an immersive experience with cardboard dinosaurs, children’s activities and a playful prehistoric theme.
In 2026, the dinosaurs were replaced by rock music.
The tone changed.
The message stayed the same.
corrugated board can educate, entertain and inspire.
This continuity is important. DS Smith is not treating the event as a one-off joke. It is using creativity to show that fibre-based materials can speak to the public in a language people actually enjoy.
Why this belongs on corruga.expert
At corruga.expert, we often write about machinery, investments, acquisitions, factories, logistics and the future of the corrugated board industry.
But stories like this are important too.
They show the emotional side of the material.
They are close to what we see in GoFArt and other projects where corrugated board becomes art, sculpture, design or public installation.
The industry needs these stories because they help people see corrugated board not only as packaging, but as a creative material with personality.
A box protects a product.
But the same material can also build a stage, a boat, a dinosaur or a moment people want to photograph and share.
More than a box
The beauty of Make it! Race it! Recycle it! is that it shows two lives of corrugated board.
One life is practical:
packaging, protection, transport, storage and supply chains.
The other life is creative:
art, design, events, education and imagination.
DS Smith brought both lives together in Timișoara.
The company showed that corrugated board can be strong enough for industry, flexible enough for designers, simple enough for public education and expressive enough for a festival.
The final message
Next time someone sees a cardboard box as something ordinary, Cartonica is a good reason to think again.
That material could become a racing boat.
Or a rock stage.
Or a dinosaur.
Or the next public project that makes sustainability easier to understand.
At Make it! Race it! Recycle it! 2026, corrugated board was not just packaging material.
It was a boat.
It was music.
It was teamwork.
It was public art.
It was proof that sustainability can also be fun.
And maybe that is one of the best ways to tell the story of corrugated board today.
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