Whole Foods Market doesn't just talk the talk, they walk the walk. They just signed a deal with GreenBox, makers of the pizza box that breaks down into four plates and a smaller box for leftovers, to start using their boxes in stores across the United States.
This solves a huge problem for the green grocery super-store - the fact that used pizza boxes can't be recycled.
"What? Yes they can," you say. No...they can't. Pizza boxes do sport the universal recycling symbol on the bottom, but once they're used the grease and melted cheese from the pizza itself renders them unrecyclable.
"The oil gets in when you're doing your process of making paper," said Terry Gellenbeck, a solid waste administrative analyst for the City of Phoenix. "The oil causes great problems for the quality of the paper, especially the binding of the fibers. It puts in contaminants, so when they do squeeze the water out, it has spots and holes."
GreenBox allows pizza-loving Whole Foods Market café customers to discard the soiled portions of the box (which you should do anyway) but allow the unsoiled portion of the box, i.e. the top, out of the trash and into the recycling bin.
It's important to realize that you're not actually being a recycling renegade and force for good when you sneak your greasy pizza boxes in with the rest of the cardboard. As a matter of fact, you'd be just the opposite. Contamination is a gigantic problem in the recycling industry. The costs of irresponsible contamination - like from pizza boxes - cost a whopping $700 million annually industry-wide.
Fortunately for Whole Foods Market and their patrons, they won't be contributing to that cost nearly as much.
[Source: Earth & Industry]
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