Recycling Tips

WAIT…before you recycle that pizza box!!!
By Christina Piles

People eat a lot of pizza. I didn’t realize just how much until I checked the contents of recycling carts in one neighborhood and saw all the pizza boxes people had placed in their cart. It’s a confusing item – we know most cardboard can be recycled and most pizza boxes even the have the “chasing arrow” symbol on them, so why do they need to go into the trash?

When cardboard or paper is recycled, it is shredded and then mixed with water and chemicals to break down the fibers into a slurry, which is called pulping. The pulp is then screened to get rid of things such as tape and string. Plastic floats to the top and staples fall to the bottom. The problem with greasy pizza boxes (or any oily or greasy paper) is that the grease and oil float to the top of the slurry and coat the fibers which can ruin a whole batch.

The bottom line is that grease and oil are two of the worst contaminants in paper recycling, and greasy pizza boxes are one of the biggest culprits. Most pizza boxes have perforated seams at the lid. If the lid is clean, you can tear it off and recycle it in your blue cart, otherwise, please place pizza boxes in your trash.

Christina was in charge of the recycling program at the City of Redding for many years.