This Pizza Box Recycling Myth Needs To Stop

We all try to be good with our takeout packaging, from giving plastic containers a new lease on life in the garden, to making sure we recycle as many of our old pizza boxes as possible. Astonishingly there are still many people who firmly believe you can't do anything with a greasy, cheesy pizza box and the only place for it is the landfill. Count this among 12 facts you never knew about pizza — you can recycle the box — and thanks to sustainable packaging company WestRock, we have the facts.

In a 2020 study, WestRock researchers looked at the cheese or grease residue on the inside of a used pizza box, and assessed how much would stop the cardboard from being recycled. They concluded that cheese, which naturally dissolves in water, wouldn't interfere with the recycling process. (So far so good, unless perhaps you're a fan of Velveeta.) The study also found that, although lots of fat and grease does hinder the cardboard recycling process, a little residue on the cardboard — less than 10%, to be precise — would pose no problems, especially as they found the average pizza box had less than 2% fat.

The conclusion was given the thumbs-up by the American Forest & Paper Association (AFPA), which said that the WestRock study showed: "There is no significant reason to prohibit post-consumer pizza boxes from the recycling stream." While that's great news for anyone who wants to throw their pizza boxes in with the rest of the curbside recycling worry-free, it's not the end of the issue.

Busting the myth about greasy pizza lids is one thing, but getting this packaging past some local recycling programs remains another problem entirely. WestRock teamed up with national pizza chain Domino's to raise awareness about the recyclability of old pizza boxes, but the packaging firm went a step further to drive the message home. The company commissioned a separate study to look into what recycling resources were available to people, and in what states.

It revealed that almost three quarters of people in the United States had access to recycling schemes for pizza boxes. However, while around 27% of programs were clear that people could drop off their old pizza boxes and other corrugated cardboard, 46% were more vague, while some refused to accept them all together. It all added up to a missed opportunity, according to the AFPA.

Every year, 600,000 tonnes of cardboard is used to make the roughly 3 billion pizza boxes filled in the U.S., but some of it doesn't get recycled because of the continued confusion over greasy cardboard. The AFPA recommended checking the guidelines in your area, and if pizza boxes are not accepted, it has drawn up specific guidelines that you or your local authorities can download. As for figuring out what percentage of fat is on your pizza box, there's a simple solution for that, too. Just cut or rip off any cardboard that's too soggy and throw that in the trash. The rest can be recycled.