Can I recycle a greasy pizza box?
In most of the country, yes, and this reversed recently. WestRock measured boxes in the recycling stream at about 1 to 2 percent grease by weight and found strength loss only matters once pizza boxes make up roughly 20 percent of the furnish. Cheese screens out during pulping. AF&PA concluded there is no significant reason to prohibit them, and about 73 percent of the US population has a program that accepts them. Shake out the food first, and tear off any section soaked through.
Should the pizza box go in recycling or compost?
It depends on whether your city runs organics collection. San Francisco, Seattle, and New York want the whole greasy box in compost. Denver asks you to recycle the clean part and discard the soiled portion. Portland recycles boxes that are greasy but free of stuck-on food and composts the rest. Where there is no organics program, recycling is the answer.
Are paper towels and napkins recyclable?
No, nowhere. Denver's exclusion list covers paper towels, napkins, tissue, paper plates, and any wet or greasy paper. They do compost well and San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland all accept food-soiled napkins and towels, though Portland excludes facial tissue. The commonly repeated warning about cleaning-product residue has no authoritative source behind it, but programs do vary, so check your local list.
Can I compost cups and containers labeled compostable?
Usually not, despite the label. BioCycle found only 14 of 248 programs accept bioplastic-coated paper such as PLA-lined cups, and 145 of 261 curbside programs reject compostable packaging entirely over contamination, labeling, and PFAS concerns. Portland refuses anything labeled compostable, biodegradable, or made from plants, and Boulder now sends compostable products to the trash. San Francisco and New York do accept them. Check your own program rather than the package.
Why do composting facilities reject BPI-certified products?
Because the certification is a laboratory standard, ASTM D6400 and related tests, and lab conditions are not facility conditions. Composters serving Oregon say certification tests compostability under conditions their facilities do not replicate, that accepting compostables means look-alike non-compostables arrive alongside them, that national organic standards bar many packaging materials from compost used on USDA Organic crops, and that these items leave behind little of value for the extra effort. Some facilities go further and require field testing in a real operation, not just lab results.
What about wax-coated produce boxes?
Keep them out of recycling. RecyclingWorks Massachusetts advises that waxed cardboard should not be collected for recycling though some commercial composting operations accept it. San Francisco composts waxed cardboard; Portland takes no waxed paper at all. Plastic and poly-coated boxes fit neither stream.
