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Home May 30, 2008
Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle All Pizza Boxes?
What You Can Do to Eat Pizza and Stay Green
I love pizza – endless supplies of mouth-watering pies are one of the Top 5 Joys of Living (and the other four are barely worth mentioning). And I am not going to give them up – even though I have learned that those cardboard boxes that every pizza parlor in the country uses cannot be put in the usual paper recycling bins once they get all messed up with tomato sauce and cheese and oils.
In fact, Barrington, RI has banned pizza boxes from its recycling bins.
So what can you do to keep eating pizza and do your recycling part? Basically it’s simple: Keep that box clean. Here’s how.
1. To keep the box clean, ask the pizza parlor to put an extra piece of that wafer-thin paper under your pizza.
2. Take the pizza out of the box before you start slicing and divvying it up and generally making a mess.
3. Cut away the bits of the box that get messy – and recycle the rest.
4. Can’t keep it clean? Then compost it. You can still recycle even the messiest box by adding it to the compost pile.
What, no compost pile in your backyard? You have passed up the opportunity to save dwindling space in your local landfill, and get yourself a free supply of mineral-rich, nontoxic fertilizer for your houseplants. You can even keep a compost bin in the kitchen.
Need more motivation? Paper products take up the most space in landfills—about 34%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
So here are some links to compsting bins to get you started, even if you have no back yard.
Small Ceramic Composter: PlowHearth
Plastic Compost Bin: GardensAlive
Scrap Composter: Sun Frost
Want to find out more about recycling?
The Benefits of Recycling: Let’s Talk Trash
Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide
The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard
Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art
Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It
Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!
Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?
