I bet you thought you couldn’t recycle a pizza box, right? Neither did I! But through some research, I found the following tips:
- If your pizza box isn’t greasy, you can recycle it. Sometimes pizza vendors will place the pizza on top of a cardboard wheel. All you have to do after you’ve eaten your delicious pizza is pull out that wheel, toss it, and then put the rest of the pizza box in your recycling bin.
- If your pizza box is greasy, you can still recycle some of it. If your pizza joint decided not to go the environmentally-friendly route, then I’m going to assume the bottom half of your pizza box is filled with grease and gooey cheese remnants. But, the top of your pizza box might have escaped unscathed. Guess what? All you have to do is chop the top off your pizza box and recycle it. You’ll have to throw the greasy half in the trash. Sad face.
- Remove any stickers or paper attached to the box. You want to only recycle pure corrugated cardboard, so please take the time to remove any stickers of receipts staples to the box (and the staples!).
- Empty your pizza box. This is obvious, but please be sure that your pizza box does not contain napkins, plastic wear (also don’t use plastic wear). Pure corrugated cardboard only!
I read somewhere that composting the greasy part of your pizza box is a terrible idea because the grease may attract more bugs, however, I also ready this really cool article about how students at NC State are composting their pizza boxes!
That’s it! If you’re interested in finding out more about recycling your pizza boxes, visit your city’s or local municipality’s website.
How to Recycle a Pizza Box
