Kepta
Is Your Pizza Box Recyclable? Usually. Here's the Catch.
The pizza box is the classic kitchen recycling argument. One person says the grease ruins it, another says it's fine. The current guidance mostly sides with the second person, with an important "check your town."
What the EPA and the paper industry say
The EPA says pizza boxes can be recycled even with grease, once the food is removed (EPA). The paper industry's trade group, the American Forest & Paper Association, said the same in 2020 (AF&PA).
That's the broad picture, not a promise for your street. Some towns still want stuck-on cheese removed (EPA, AF&PA), and recycling lists are set town by town, so the honest answer is: usually, and check your town.
Before the box goes out
- Take out the food. Leftover slices, crusts, and any cheese stuck to the lid. Food left inside is what causes trouble: contamination can send a whole load to the landfill (UT Austin, UW).
- Flatten it. Cardboard boxes go in flattened (EPA).
- Put it in loose. Recyclables go into the bin loose, never in a plastic bag (UT Austin, Rumpke).
- Look it up rather than guess. Cities call hopeful guessing "wishcycling" and advise "when in doubt, throw it out" (UT Austin).
When part of the box is too far gone
A box with a little grease is one thing. Paper that is heavily soiled with food is another: the EPA lists heavily food-soiled paper and napkins as not recyclable (EPA). If part of your box is still caked with food that won't come off, treat that part the same way. Where your town collects food scraps, that kind of paper can often be composted instead; New York City's curbside composting takes food-soiled paper (NYC Sanitation). Otherwise, it goes in the trash.
The leftover pizza
The slices are food, and food in the trash isn't harmless. In a landfill it rots without air and makes methane, and the EPA estimates food waste is about 58 percent of the methane that escapes from municipal landfills (EPA).
Pizza usually carries cheese and often meat, which the EPA keeps out of a backyard compost pile. Many city food scrap programs take them, and New York City accepts meat, bones and dairy (EPA, NYC Sanitation). Better still is eating it: the EPA's Wasted Food Scale puts preventing wasted food at the very top, above any kind of disposal (EPA).
The short version
Get the food out, flatten the box, and put it in the bin loose if your town takes pizza boxes. Paper caked with food can often go to compost where there's a program; otherwise, the trash. To check your town, search your city or county website for "recycling," or try Earth911's search in the US.
If the pizza goes in the fridge and you log it in Kepta, it gets an eat-by countdown like any other leftover, and a daily reminder names it, so the slices get eaten instead of found next week. That's the part Kepta helps with: using food before it goes bad, so less of it ends up in the bin.
