For the first time in modern cigar history, a real conversation is beginning around waste and it’s long overdue.
Privada Cigar Club, alongside the Limited Cigar Association (LCA), is leading a campaign called #BurnTheBox, a bold initiative urging cigar manufacturers to reduce their use of wooden cigar boxes by 25% in 2026. It’s not just a stunt. It’s a necessary first step in aligning the cigar industry with a global movement that every other consumer goods industry has already had to face: sustainability.
The Numbers Are Real
Based on current U.S. import data, approximately 467 million handmade cigars entered the country in 2023. Assuming 80% are shipped in wooden boxes and the average box holds 20 cigars, that’s around 18 to 19 million wooden boxes used in the U.S. alone every year. Globally, that number approaches 30 million.
What’s worse most of those boxes end up in the trash. Even accounting for decorative reuse, the vast majority are discarded. Multiply that by decades, and the waste becomes hard to ignore.
Wooden cigar boxes are beautiful. They’re part of the romance of cigar culture. But they’re also expensive to make, inefficient to ship, and environmentally irresponsible when overused. No one is saying get rid of them entirely. But do we need a handcrafted cedar box for every single $8 cigar in circulation?
What Are the Alternatives?
The industry already has answers it just hasn’t embraced them at scale. Paper bundles, recyclable tubes, reusable trays, compostable cartons these aren’t new inventions. Buffalo Ten has successfully used simple cardboard sleeves for years while maintaining quality and customer satisfaction. In fact, many retailers have long preferred bundles for economic and storage reasons.
If a box isn’t enhancing the experience, extending the aging process, or serving a legitimate branding function—it’s just wood.
The Cigar Industry Is Behind the Curve
The truth is, other industries have been tackling these problems for decades.
- Craft beer phased out heavy glass and embraced aluminum for environmental reasons.
- Luxury fashion has reduced packaging bulk by up to 40% across top-tier brands.
- Tech companies, once notorious for over-boxing, are now being graded on their sustainability metrics.
Yet in the cigar industry, we’ve been largely silent. We’ve romanticized the box as part of the ritual and that’s valid. But when the ritual creates unnecessary waste, and when change is clearly possible, doing nothing becomes the real tradition-breaker.
Why This Campaign Matters
#BurnTheBox is not a boycott. It’s a request. A challenge. A signal that cigar lovers are ready to think bigger.
Privada and the LCA aren’t just talking they’re putting real money behind the cause. Profits from upcoming releases will help fund educational content, eco-packaging R&D, and incentives for manufacturers willing to rethink how cigars are presented to the world.
This will be uncomfortable for some. That’s how all meaningful progress starts.
There will be complaints. That we’re ruining the artistry. That it’s anti-tradition. That it’s not our place. But here’s the reality: traditions survive by evolving. They die when they stagnate.
We’re not burning cigar culture. We’re burning what no longer serves it.
Final Thought
You don’t need to be an environmentalist to care about this. You just need to care about cigars enough to want them to exist for the next generation.
Reducing box use by 25% is not radical. It’s reasonable. And it’s time.
If you’re reading this, you’re part of the conversation now. Let’s keep it going.
#BurnTheBox
We love your cigars. But you can keep the boxes.
— Cigar Public
