You’re doing your part to recycle, but it can be confusing to navigate the waters of recyclable food containers. Plastic jugs and milk containers are pretty easy; you can rinse those and send them out with the newspaper and other recyclables, but what about pizza boxes?
Cardboard boxes in and of themselves are recyclable, so the pizza box should be too, right? Unfortunately, it is the greasy food stains that make a pizza box or any paper product not recyclable. It has to do with the recycling process- plastic, metal, and glass are recycled using a heat process, so grease isn’t an issue. But paper and cardboard are mixed with water to create slurry that can then be turned into something else. Since oil and water don’t mix, you can see why a greasy pizza box is a problem! So tear away any grease tainted portions of cardboard before recycling that pizza box!