If the box had a frozen pizza covered in plastic, the box is recyclable. If there was a cooked pizza in the box (such as you get from a pizzeria) then the box is usually greasy and will not be recycled.
In packaging engineering we learned recycled paper was subject to grease spots or shiners. The recycled paper is of less value than virgin paper.
Perhaps the best solution I saw which does not involve trash sorting is to heat waste until it gasifies then produce synthesis gas from the results...basically you are taking the material back to a form of natural gas and synthesizing polymers from there.
The people who are the most fervent recyclers are also the most ignorant orange to the business of recycling. If a trailer load of recyclables is worth more to a recycler than it is compared to the cost of sending it to the dump, it goes the recycler. If not, it goes to the dump. There is no altruism or save the world effort here, it’s purely a matter of $$$.
That’s the reason why some municipities insist on rinsed glass, clean paper, etc.. the trash people want to fetch a higher price than garbage.
Recyclers charge different rates because they have to do more sorting/cleaning/processing, but they can recycle all of it if they wanted to. They also want to make a profit, so if there isn’t much of a market for recycled glass, they stop taking glass for a while. Since the only place that pays for storage is the city for taking stuff to the dump, off to the dump it goes.
Recycling and waste processing could be run much better in many localities, but there’s a lot of profit to be made by the existing operators and often some big barriers to entry for disruptors. Probably the biggest is that hippies, while often quite smelly, don’t like sorting and storing actual garbage and few of them can drive truck.
I quit recycling 15 years ago when the recycling crew tried to stage an intervention for me. Stop looking at my bottle consumption...
Pro pineapple. Canadian bacon and pineapple is my favorite. The empty box goes in the trash.
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.
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.
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.
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).
My woodstove recycles them into electricity saving heat just fine; the greasier, the better they burn.
they could be good weed paper in a garden.
I clean them up a little and take them back to the pizza place to reuse. I’m proud to do my part for recycling.
The city gave us this huge blue recycling bin on wheels. It’s great for yard waste. Mine has never had a single item in it for recycling.
Curbside recycling is a colossal waste of money and resources.
Can You Recycle Used Pizza Boxes?
Why absolutely you can? They are great to get the camp fire started in the back yard. That grease catches fire real good and burns for a good long time.
Paper or Plastic? Bring your own cloth pizza box?
You can “recycle” ANYTHING. What happens to it after you throw it in a recycle bin is irrelevant.
I do worse things than put my pizza box in recycle, I recycle paper plates. When cleaning up before loading the dishwasher, there is soapy water to clean counters. You simply rinse them, and unless they don’t come clean easily, you put them with cardboard and paper..... SHOCKING NEWS I know.