Another multipanel cartoon (which you people love to see and I hate to make) on the proper way to Recycle a used pizza box. This is another comic that comes from real life.
It was only about a year ago that I learned that before you recycle a pizza box, you are supposed to cut out the grease stain. Supposedly grease can’t be recycled (at least in that way). So has it changed my behavior? No! Unlike the cartoon, I still throw the whole thing in the recycling bin. Let them figure it out at the plant, my conscience is clear.
Comments
86 responses to “Correct Way to Recycle a Pizza Box Cartoon”
Haha, I must admit I throw the whole box in the recycling bin too! 🙂
Ha I am not the only one
Geez, I didn’t even know that. Once again, Bearman Cartoons has made my life richer!
And I’ll probably do the same and just throw the whole thing into the recycling bin. 🙂
I am a wealth of information
I didn’t know that either!
Again…
Meh, we make our own pizzas. So my conscience is clear, too. :`D
Does your pizza taste like cardboard? Haha j/k
No. that’s the store-bought kind, cardboard with tons of salt. which is why we make our own,. :`D
Send me some…in a box.
I would, but by the time you got it you wouldn’t be able to tell the pizza from the box so may as well get you’re usual. ;`)
Freeze it, pack it in dry ice and I’ll cook it..haha so lazy am I.
I’m enlightened and P.O.’d at the same time. Either we all need to change our life styles (which is nearly impossible… Pizza is so good!) or they need to engineer the recycling plants so they can handle a bit of extra grease! Quit making the right thing to do so difficult, morals police!
That’s why some pizza places put some type of wax paper on the bottom
I do the same thing. (Except my conscience is clear.)
haha.. Thanks Quark!
Same conundrum as when you used to have to scrape the labels off tin cans and flatten them. Now you can just toss ’em in the bin labels and all.
Luckily we have very progressive recycling here in Oregon. You can put greasy pizza boxes and soiled paper towels in the organic waste along with your grass clippings destined to be composted. At our curbside recycling facility they have employees who go through the waste stream and they probably toss out all the greasy pizza boxes. They are fine for compost but they are a contaminant if the paper is to be turned into new paper. My daughter works at a pizza place so she has developed a healthy distaste for pizza. I can’t eat it due to wheat intolerance, and my husband eschews bread for his waistline. Really when you think about it, pizza is mostly BREAD!
There is a chain here called Naked Pizza and I remember in North Carolina a place called Z’s Pizza. Both have gluten free pizza so you need to tell your daughter to get her pizza place with the program.
But I can relate. It took me 5 years to eat at Perkins after I worked there because I knew how the food was prepared.
They’re starting to get more and more stringent about these recycling rules. I hate all of the new stipulations. They’re lucky if i pour ALL of the water out of my water bottles before I return them to the recycling center for cash.
And that’s the only way I recycle is for cash. I’m not one of those environmentally-obligated dudes who just likes to look out for nature. Pay me, or I’m tossin’ it outta my car window right into your front yard, grease stain and all. 😀
Pay you. Oh you Californians. I thought you did everything for the environment. No wonder your state is broke (along with the rest of ours) But still. You waste more money. I recycle because every six month I drive past the county dump and see all the crap that gets thrown away.
Here in Tasmania we aren’t even allowed to put them in the recycle bin. Love your multi-panel comics. We even have to remove the caps from bottles before we chuck them in. Plus they go around doing random checks on bins & if they find yours “contaminated” with unacceptable stuff your bin gets a violation sticker. 3 stickers & something bad happens but I can’t remember what the consequences are. I can just imagine being in prison & some rough tough serial killer asks you what you’re in for & you reply, “I left the cap on a Coke bottle”
You should do that as a cartoon. That would be funny.
I think we are supposed to remove the caps too but again…I don’t. It all goes in. But on the bright side I am keeping recycling sorters in a job.
Just ask for no grease when you order. Problem solved!
Good idea, I’ll put it in my notebook
Thank god I got out of Tasmania when I did 🙂
I just checked on my local council’s website
“Yes, pizza boxes can be recycled. Just scrape off any chunks of food before you pop it into your recycling bin. A little grease is okay.”
*phew*
Tasmania’s rules obviously haven’t made it over to you all yet.
I thought you were supposed to make the homeless eat your left over pizza boxes.
I tried to give someone my leftovers once…he thought I was nuts.
I just eat the grease spot.
You didn’t notice where the pizza in my cartoon came from?
Of course I noticed!!
Okay, so maybe I didn’t. I hope you’re not saying my pizza is greasy!
Oh not at all. Just you would eat so much that you probably need your own place. Do they make chocolate pizza?
Ahhh… I only just noticed the “Binky’s Pizza” on the box.
At Binky’s Pizza Palace, chocolate pizza is king! We also make the regular kind for humans.
I knew that had to be on the menu
But you are the owner of the Pizza Place!!!
exactly.
I do the very same thing. I’m not messing with that grease stain either. You want me to recycle then you cut the grease stain out.
Have a terrific day. 🙂
You are lazy..haha
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. 🙂
Best for whom or is it who? I never figured that one out.
Whom.
(If you can substitute “him” for “who” then it should be “whom”.)
ahhh..thank you Professor Binky. Good way to remember it.
Sounds like my place of employment. Now we have to separate our trash from our recyclables, which means that every day I have to bring in a trash bag to throw my trash in ’cause the trash can that we got is only good for recycling.
I would find an empty office and take their can so I would have two.
Wait…
I’m not supposed to be eating the box, too?!
🙂
Only the high fiber ones.
All of the boxes from Binky’s Pizza are high fiber.
Benefiber?
Well it’s not Binkyfiber!
We don’t send nothin’ off to recycle. If we can’t find a use for it then it ain’t no good to nobody. Pizza boxes are great for burnin’ brush and stuff. I know that might pollute the air but hey…at least I’m recyclin’.
I can see your place with tons of glass jars used a plant holders.
Truck tires make good planters. 🙂
You’ll have to show us a picture
Oh yeah recyclin’ carbon in the air – cough
I’ll admit, if the grease spot isn’t too bad, I’ll recycle it. If it’s a huge spot, it goes into the trash. I would say we usually recycle about 80% of the stuff we throw away… but we’re good old fashioned tree huggers.
I am much better at it than my wife. We used to have a bucket that we might fill up once a week. Now we have a giant can that we can’t make it till the recycling guy comes every two weeks without it overflowing.
Where I live, pizza boxes have to go in the trash. It’s not just the grease, but apparently crumbs and cheese also do some kind of damage tot he recycling plants.
Man you got some touchy machines in your parts. As President I hope you will work on this.
One man’s trash is a recycler’s displeasure. What’s the world coming to when even our trash is not good enough?
It’s when the garbage man rejects you that you know you have real problems.
I’m still fighting an uphill battle trying to get my housemates to recycle at all, so something like this is probably not going to fly over well.
I have to admit, I’ve never heard of the ‘cut out the grease’ rule (except when I dab my pizza with a napkin…what?! That’s even more grease!).
You know you are a heart attack waiting to happen when the greasy napkin weighs more than the slice of pizza.
The next ad slogan for Domino’s? Seems accurate.
Hey I like Dominos new recipe.
I do what you do, I throw it all in and let the recycle plant worry about it. We have “no sort recycling” in these parts, so it all goes into a bin they have to sort out anyways when it gets there. Not sure how popular this method is around the planet.
Based on my scientific research (of all of you), I would say the cut method is non existent.
I often will rip the greasy half off and throw it in garbage but certainly don’t see why anyone would try to cut out the greasy spot. The boxes are easy to rip in half.
But let me say this – Congrats on making a cartoon and post out of an old pizza box. Also, I never imagined I would comment about such a subject.
That is probably the most logical thing to do if you are strong like you and can rip cardboard in half.
Hey! They stole Binky’s pizza!
What are these recycling machines made of? I would have assumed big metal grinding teeth and shredding parts not wet noodles and plastic staples. Why does it mess up the machines or the process? Does it matter if the recycled paper is one percent grease and stuck on cheese? Inquiring minds want someone else to do the research and then present it to them.
OK. Mr too lazy to google it. From this article http://earth911.com/news/2009/03/02/the-pizza-box-mystery/
“Food is one of the worst contaminants in the paper recycling process. Grease and oil are not as big of a problem for plastic, metal and glass, as those materials are recycled using a heat process. But when paper products, like cardboard, are recycled, they are mixed with water and turned into a slurry. Since we all know water and oil don’t mix, the issue is clear.
Grease from pizza boxes causes oil to form at the top of the slurry, and paper fibers cannot separate from oils during the pulping process. Essentially, this contaminant causes the entire batch to be ruined. This is the reason that other food related items are non-recyclable (used paper plates, used napkins, used paper towels, etc).”
Thanks Bearman! Well there you have it.
The more you know.
Now I guess maybe you won’t be too lazy to cut up a pizza box, Mr. too lazy.
I think I tried to recycle a used pizza box once & they tossed in the regular trash… so that is what I do, without remorse!
I still have remorse..
I agree with you. If the earth wants to be saved, it’s got to make a bit more of an effort to meet us half way.
It does. That is why the ocean tends to wipe out the houses of the rich folk who think it is cool to build on the beach.
I thought the grease made it biodegradable.
grease and water dont mix
I throw it in the recycling to. It’s so big.
we are baaaaad
What am I going to do with that box of grease I have outside?
I throw the box in the recycling 🙁
Many people assume that pizza boxes are recyclable. In fact, most boxes have recycling symbols on them and are traditionally made from corrugated cardboard. They are, in and of themselves, recyclable.
So a small amount of a substance biodegradable enough to eat wrecks cardboard to point of being unrecyclable. Fascinating.
The way someone explained it to me is the grease. Cardboard is recycled using water…water and grease don’t mix.