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Can You Recycle Pizza Boxes UK?

Who does not love a pizza? Pizza is a dish which is cherished by people. Many say that this one even though it is a junk food item is something which has all the food groups available in it.  People can go to a certain place to eat pizza or order a pizza online. The former offers them a dining experience while the latter invites people to enjoy the deliciousness of pizza in the comfort of their homes. But do you know what else comes with the delicious pizza that you are ordering? Apart from the delish flavors, pizza tends to come in a cardboard box and in case you are frequently ordering pizza from places, then your house will have a plethora of such boxes. Now, these sorts of pizza boxes are the main reason for headaches for people, mainly because of the fact that they tend to crowd your area and secondly because after a certain point, they are a nuisance. 

That is why people are often searching for queries such as can you recycle pizza boxes in the UK? Well, recycling is a concept that is not novel. It has been around for centuries but the focus on the environment has been enhanced in the past decade. From customers to government agencies, everyone is becoming more and more aware of their carbon footprint and hence carving out ways to ensure that they are embracing those practices that are environmentally sound and reduce the burden of waste from the environment. 

Well, let us reassure you properly, The main thing that you need to know about the query is whether you recycle pizza boxes UK is that yes. You can recycle the box. You do not have to worry about the grease and everything else. 

We will let you know how to do this later in the context. But first of all, let’s establish some ground rules about this one: 

A fun question here is what came first - the pizza box or the pizza? Well, this one might be a paradox but if we are to talk about the invention of pizza it can be dated back to 997AD. But the pizza box was patented in 1963. 

The original one was made from corrugated cardboard and can be opened to the sides. If we are to talk about the efficacy of this box then it is similar to the ones that are currently available. 

The inventor of the pizza box was Tom Monaghan. He did it so that the companies could deliver pizza to the households without damaging the contents of the pizza in the process. Since then food boxes has become a common object for all those who are either eating or delivering pizza. 

How is Cardboard Recycled?

One of the most amazing things about cardboard is that it is a recyclable product. This substance is widely accepted and universally considered as a recyclable material. This is mainly because of the fact that cardboard is made up of either newspapers or boxes. 

Now a major point to consider here is that the cardboard boxes when are greased or contaminated are difficult to process. The main reason behind this one is that the grease and other contaminations degrade the quality of the box leading to a poor efficacy of the recyclable process. Not only does it degrade the recycling process but also affects the equipment that is being used in the process. 

This is the main reason why many recycling plants do not offer to recycle pizza boxes in the UK or USA. This causes the boxes to either get incinerated or get dumped in the trash or local landfill. Not only does this add up to the waste and its amount in the landfill but is also a burden on the environment in every possible manner. 

But pizza lovers can find a better, cleaner, and more sophisticated way to coexist in a situation where they are not contributing to the litter of the environment. 

Under normal circumstances when the pizza box is just cardboard and does not have greasy issues with it, then it is taken to the recycling plant. There the box is mixed with a mixture of bleaching agents, water, and detergent. All of these agents work in perfect harmony with one another to get rid of the grease and other sorts of contamination from the boxes. 

How to Recycle Pizza Box? 

If you are wondering if can you recycle pizza boxes UK, here is how you can do it in the following stages: 

Remove All the Food Leftovers from the Box

One of the most important things that you need to do about pizza boxes before you start to recycle them is to remove all sorts of food from the box. In case there is some sort of contamination on the box then these food particles will deem the cardboard unfit for further usage. 

That is make sure that all the food leftovers are taken care of before you start with the process of recycling your pizza box. 

Soak Up Excess Grease from the Cardboard 

The second most disastrous thing to cause a hindrance in your pizza box recycling setup is grease. Grease is detrimental because it does not allow the cardboard to soak up all the materials and leave behind a gooey substitute that cannot be used further. 

Therefore you should either try a towel or a napkin to get rid of all the grease from the pizza box. This way the towel or the napkin will soak up the grease from the pizza box. Just a bit of oil droplets which will be scattered here and there won’t cause an issue but loads of grease can be a problem. 

Use a Cardboard Insert to Separate the Box from Pizza Contamination 

One of the best things that the pizza manufacturing companies have been doing for quite a long time is the placement of inserts in the pizza boxes. These inserts are used to mount the pizza which makes sure that the grease does not affect the box and hence the box can be recycled. 

In case you are trying to eat the pizza directly from the box, then you need to ensure that you have placed the insert in the box in the right place so that the grease is not affecting the box. 

Recycle the Lid 

In some scenarios, if you are not careful with handling the box, then the grease can affect the box and hence make it unworthy for the recycling process. That is when you do not have any other choice but to recycle the lid of the box. 

Carefully remove the lid from the box and apply the recycling process on the lid. This way you will be able to make some pre-mature brown material for your compost. 

Cardboard can be used in a Compost Bin 

But if everything from the box to the lid is not suitable enough for recycling, you can simply place the cardboard box inside the compost bin. This is mainly because of the fact that cardboard is a biodegradable material. These sorts of materials are easy to compost and therefore if you are unable to recycle them, you can simply put them in the compost bin. 

The Bottom Line 

The aforementioned context successfully builds the narrative on can you Recycle Pizza Box UK. We do hope that this information will be helpful for you and will take you one step closer to becoming a more environmentally conscious individual. 

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