Super Eco

Photo credit: crabchick, flickr

We're not going to take your big, greasy pizza away from you. Sure, you could make yours vegetarian or vegan, or you could make your own pizza dough—no preservatives, nothing hydrogenated—in only five minutes a day. Or you could be tired and lazy and more in the mood to log in and click up The Natural from Pizza Hut. Ok. We can run with that idea. The thing is, what are you gonna do with that big, greasy cardboard box afterwards?

If you suspected that you probably shouldn't be sneaking your grease-soaked pizza box into the recycling bin, you were right. Earth911 lays it out in black and white: "Pizza boxes that are tarnished with food, or any paper product that is stained with grease or food, are not recyclable—unless you remove the tainted portions." Umm, "tainted"? Ouch!

It's the cheese, the grease and the adhesive labels on pizza boxes that gum up the works. At the paper recycling plant, pizza boxes get tossed into a vat and mixed with water to create a sludgy substance called "slurry," a pulpy mixture that's spun, pressed and wrapped to create new paper. Except the batch with your cheesy, greasy box, that is. Oil vs. water, m'kay? Your pizza box just contaminated a whole batch of paper. Some estimates put the indsustry-wide cost of irresponsible recycling contamination as high as $700 million per year.

The simple solution: tear the box in half. Don't recycle the part that's greasy, cheesy or sticky from labels. (While you're at it, don't recycle other used food products like paper plates, napkins and paper wrappings. Same greasy problem.) Or try out a new pizzeria and recipes, since oil slicks aren't all that appetizing, anyway. Mamma mia!