Pizza Hut to Trial Round, Compostable Pizza Boxes

If there’s anything we know about pizza boxes, it’s that they’re square, and they contain a delicious round meal. However, if you’re into recycling, then you also know that the grease spots, cheese stains, and sauce spills make pizza boxes nearly impossible to recycle, as the food waste contaminates the process. However, according to the Good News Network, Pizza Hut may have found a way to change both of those traditions in one fell swoop.

Round Pizza in a Round Box… Huh.

The new boxes that a Pizza Hut in Arizona will be debuting are the same size and shape as the pizza inside them… round. Because the shape of the box matches the pizza inside, it uses less material than a traditional pizza box. This could allow Pizza Hut to cut down significantly on the sheer amount of cardboard waste it was generating every year on a franchise-wide basis.

However, the boxes have another advantage… they’re industrially compostable!

While using fewer materials is a step in the right direction, making a box out of plant fibers that can be churned up into compost changes the game entirely. Because now, instead of mountains of cardboard waste that can’t be recycled due to food contamination, we could have waste that can be turned back into useful materials instead. Materials that can support the environment, and be reused in other ways, rather than being shoveled into a landfill and pushed out of sight.

A Small Step in The Right Direction

These boxes are only going to be used in select locations. However, popularity and profitability often lead to corporations making ecologically positive decisions because it’s good for their earnings, rather than because it’s the right thing to do. But if this particular trend catches on, and other chains follow suit, it could have a big impact on the way eating pizza generates waste… or doesn’t.