Don't Believe This Greasy Pizza Box Recycling Myth

There are many different types of pizza, and whichever is your go-to on takeout night, a commonly held belief is that you can't recycle the box it comes in. But is that true, or is it a myth? The straightforward answer is, yes, you can definitely recycle pizza cartons — but the not-so-straightforward answer is: It depends where you try to recycle them. Many community recycling programs either outright don't accept pizza containers or have unclear guidelines about whether or not they can be submitted for recycling.

It's specifically the grease and cheese remnants that have been vilified as the recycling ruiners in pizza packaging. It's commonly purported that this food residue will contaminate other recyclables, disrupting the recycling process, and that grease will prevent the recycled cardboard fibers from bonding properly, resulting in low-quality end materials. Some environmental services companies suggest ripping off the upper portion of pizza boxes — where the greasy, saucy pie hasn't left as much of a mark — and recycling only that cleaner bit of the packaging. But is that necessary?

Ohio-based Rumpke Waste & Recycling states the amount of grease attached to a pizza box doesn't matter — it's still recyclable in all stages of oil saturation. Rumpke's paper mill partners (across all U.S. states) don't consider food grease to be a contaminant (per Rumpke). A 2020 study conducted by global sustainable packaging leader Smurfit Westrock (known as WestRock at the time of the study) substantiates this. The amount of greasy residue on any given pizza box isn't enough to significantly impact inter-fiber bonding, per the study, and cheese doesn't hinder it at all. In fact, cheese remnants often solidify and are screened out during the pulping portion of recycling.

The American Forest & Paper Association has been campaigning to raise awareness and get more recycling programs to accept used pizza boxes. As long as slices of leftover pie have been removed from the boxes, there's no reason they can't be recycled. Since cold pizza tastes great — and there's science to back this up — removing leftover wedges and stowing them in the fridge before recycling should be easy for consumers. Bonus: You can take your recycling efforts even further and repurpose leftover pizza crusts into yummy, pizza-flavored breadcrumbs or croutons (you're welcome).

Approximately 3 billion pizza boxes are used annually in the U.S., per Smurfit Westrock, equating to about 6,000 tons of recyclable cardboard. This can be recycled into products like shipping boxes and cardboard rolls in household paper goods.

Strides have reportedly been made since the WestRock pizza box study was published, and more U.S. recycling programs are accepting the containers. Nevertheless, numerous recycling facilities still don't. Ever Green Environmental, a recycling company serving South Carolina, specifically states on its website that customers cannot recycle pizza containers as of February 2026. Concern about food residue is only one prohibitive reason — another is the printing on the boxes themselves. If the packaging is covered with glossy inks or wax coatings, this makes it unfit for recycling, per the company. Rumpke Waste & Recycling advises that every recycling facility has different capabilities, and these factors may impact the suitability of pizza packaging acceptance. The best course of action is to check with your local program and find out its policies.