Is the glue in cardboard boxes biodegradable?

I am buying part of a field and I want to cover it with cardboard boxes to kill the grass off over 12 months. Is this viable?
Will the glue be biodegrade?
Thanks

 

Probably, many glues used in cardboard boxes are starch based. Also the cardboard box industry is very much into recycling and sustainability and a glue that doesn't break down or dissolve in water makes life harder for them.
You might need to replace the cardboard fairly regularly.

 

It's hot melt glue (cardboard to cardboard joins) and a starch based glue with additives (in corrugated cardboard manufacture), and I very much doubt the hot melt glue is biodegradable. There's possibly ink on the boxes too, not to mention "impurities" (plastic, metal) if the material is recycled, which is likely. I'd spray the lot with glyphosate rather than use cardboard, there would be less contamination, and it would be easier and probably more reliable.

 

Yes, chemicals are frowned upon. No, there wouldn't be enough harmful rubbish included with the boxes.
My verdict is cardboard the c**p out of it

 

I have no reason to think glue 'toxicity' would transfer into any plant species, its the sticky tape that is the pain, as it does not break down in a lifetime! Also the machine staples used in large boxes are a vicious threat,but they do rust away in time.
It may be noted that if its grass you are suppressing, that couch grass will not die in a year.
You do not state the onward use of the cleared land; if its to grow vegetables, then this method is effective. Mow to remove as much top as possible, cover with overlapping f lat cardboard, then 100mm compost. Plant prepared plants same day.

 

My problem with cardboard is the material itself. If it's new, from virgin pulp, it's just wood fibre, but recycled cardboard, and at east 75% of it is here, contains all sorts of stuff; plastic sticky tape, plastic from envelopes, packaging material such as polystyrene, polythene coated paper, delivery labels, etc. When the cardboard is pulped so are all the impurities and so minute particles of them ("nanoplastics", size ranging between 1 nm and 1 μm) get into the soil and are taken up by plants and then eaten by us and stay in our bodies. Cultivation abrades plastic and makes even more nanoplastic. There are various interesting studies and papers out there; an online search for "nanoplastic environment effects" will return some.

That's why I'd (far!) rather use glyphosate which does break down fairly rapidly in the soil.