Twin Citians Can Now Recycle Pizza Boxes

You're probably used to recycling aluminum cans, newspapers too. Now another widely-used item is making the move from your garbage heap to the recycling pile.

Eureka Recycling is now accepting cardboard, delivery-style pizza boxes.

While recycling companies have recycled cardboard for quite a while, the belief was that the oils and cheese left in pizza boxes were contaminants that could affect the quality of recycled goods.

But Eureka Recycling challenged that.

Dianna Kennedy of Eureka Recycling said, "We talked to the mills that we worked with to recycle cardboard and we asked them to test it to see if it could truly be made back into new cardboard boxes and the results came back positive and we were able to add it."

This month, Eureka Recycling started accepting pizza boxes from the five cities it serves directly - Arden Hills, Lauderdale, Roseville, St. Paul and St. Louis Park.

Companies that haul trash to Eureka's recycling facility are taking the boxes too. That includes Troje's Trash Service, which serves cities like Inver Grove Heights, Mendota Heights, Rosemount and Woodbury.

"We are so excited to be able to offer this," said owner DJ Troje, "It's just another leap toward a greener way."

The companies did not need to make any changes, since the boxes go in with paper goods and there's no need to break them down.

Before you add a pizza box to your recycling bin, you need to toss out any scraps of food and plastic pieces. You should also scrape off cheesy bits left behind. Boxes too saturated with food or grease can't be recycled.

And remember this is only for cardboard, delivery-style boxes not the frozen-pizza kind.

Companies that haul to Eureka Recycling facility:

• Maroney's Sanitation, Inc. - Lakeland and Lakeland Shores; Curbside recycling customers in Baytown Township, Hugo, Lake Elmo, West Lakeland Township, Woodbury
• Veolia Environmental Services - White Bear Lake
• Troje's Trash Services - Curbside recycling customers in Denmark Township, Inver Grove Heights, Mendota Heights, Newport, Rosemount, South St. Paul, Woodbury