Posted on 06/09/2022 3:47:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It's time to debunk this urban legend.
There are many contentious debates when it comes to pizza. Cheese or pepperoni? New York- or Chicago-style? Pro- or anti-pineapple? While all of these arguments may never be resolved, we're here to discuss one that should have a definite answer: Should you put used pizza boxes in the recycling bin or the trash?
One of the reasons for this cardboard confusion is that the answer may vary based on where you live. Recycling centers across the country each have their own guidelines for what you can recycle. In New York City, for example, you're free to add your used pizza box to the recycling with the rest of your cardboard. But in other municipalities, like Huntsville, Alabama, for example, you need to put it in your trash.
Why can't cities agree on where to dispose of pizza boxes? It has to do with the grease. Oil, cheese, and other pizza remnants can compromise the inter-fiber bonding that occurs during the recycling process. This can make large quantities of recycled paper weak. But is it really a big deal?
According to a study commissioned by the packaging company WestRock (they supply pizza boxes to Domino's), greasy boxes don't do as much damage as some people may think. They calculated the amount of grease in your average used pizza box and did the math.
The study found that the strength of the recycled material degrades when the cardboard is 20% grease by weight. Most used pizza boxes' grease-by-weight percentage hovers at around 1 to 2%. Since they only make up around 2% of all recycled corrugated cardboard every year, the amount of grease found in our recycling centers won't make a significant impact.
So what does this mean for us when it comes to recycling at home? When in doubt, check your local recycling rules. Domino's has made the process easy for everyone: Go to their website and plug in your ZIP code, and the site will tell you if your local recycling center accepts pizza boxes. About 70% of recycling centers in the United States do accept them—just remove any liners, leftover food, and tiny plastic tables.
For the remaining 30% that don't allow pizza boxes to be recycled, Domino's and several cardboard producers launched The Recycling Partnership in 2020 to divert pizza boxes from landfills. You can get involved by reading their toolkit and encouraging your local recycling center to take pizza boxes.
I throw it in recycling everytime and let the recycling plant decide.
I don’t know, but there’s a contingent of so-called “Moorish-Americans” who will be happy to take your used KFC chicken buckets.
Just think...If they’d recycled that pizza box, they would not have to dig that extra hole...
And the ground is ruined for maybe forever. Stuff leaks into groundwater which could effect lives around it. You have lots to be proud of.
Thank you....
Bingo!!
Several years ago I read up on the recycling program in Tucson, AZ. I’d imagine it’s about the same around the country. The numbers may be a bit off, but here’s what I recall:
Tucson was paying the recycler $2/ton to accept, sort and sell (dispose of) consumer recycled materials. Tucson charged $1/ton to dump stuff in the landfill.
Guess where the majority of the “recycling” ended up.
I recycle them as fire starters in my wood burning stove. Cheese is high quality kindling.
I have never understood the supposed ecological benefit of recycling paper. Paper is not made from old growth forests. It is made from trees that are planted as a crop, no different than planting wheat except it takes a lot longer for the crop to be harvested. Planted trees remove carbon from the atmosphere. If you recycle paper, less trees are planted. If you send paper to landfills, carbon is removed from the atmosphere and encapsulated underground.
Another fun incident.
A peripheral acquaintance had some land and wanted to build a recycling facility. He fought for years trying to get the zoning modified. He finally gave up and sold the land. The new owner had the zoning modified and his recycling facility up and running in less than 2 years.
It must just be a coincidence. There’s no graft in Pima Co.
One use for pizza boxes.... : )
Jeff Foxworthy at Seven Feathers Casino Resort
https://youtu.be/dhtRT1prV98?t=657
Start of the bit
https://youtu.be/dhtRT1prV98?t=358
Paper should never be recycled. It is grown as a cash crop and paper, especially if shredded is environmentally innocuous. Turn it into mulch.
My county stopped recycling a few years ago. It cost them more to collect everything than they could get money for the items.
LOL! Havent been to Pizza Hut in over 20 years, but that was certainly the case.
Put them in an Amazon box, tape, put on porch.
So, ... give them to porch pirates!? lol
Where do you think pepperoni comes from?
I recycle only cardboard. I have to do SOMETHING with it! I flatten all cartons (including pizza boxes) and throw them in the bin (dumpster) marked “Cardboard Only”. Also, I don’t have top pay for the cardboard.
I don’t recycle bottles and cans either. I just throw them in the trash. Too much of a hassle and unsanitary to save them and return them.
Don’t tell me to rinse them out. What a waste of water. (and MY water is free).
Actually, they can't.
The Coast Guard makes a living off of auditing the vessel logs to track everything from cargo, to spent oil discharge, garbage burn logs, etc. CBP does the same thing, but not with the thoroughness of the Coasties.
I once ran into a captain of a Chinese vessel that had violated all these protocols, was facing 5 years in prison, and likely, when he returned to the loving care of the Chi-coms, a bullet in the head.
My woodstove recycles them into electricity saving heat just fine; the greasier, the better they burn.
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