This treat could be the reason that some people have thier bins marked with a warning
Andrew Nuttall U35 Lifestyle Writer
12:53, 16 Jul 2026
Recycling bins could be ignored if people put an item inside that ‘goes rancid’ and spoils everything(Image: Getty)
A binman has shared his verdict on whether it is safe to leave a common takeaway food item in the recycling bin. Ashley, who goes by @Theno1.binman on TikTok, addressed the issue after a follower asked about the rules.
Ashley explained what homeowners should do with an empty cardboard pizza box. He explained that the deciding factor is whether the box has been stained by food and oil. The binman warns that oily boxes can contaminate the rest of the recycling inside. If that happens, collectors may refuse to empty the bin altogether, even if the box says it can be recycled.
Although many pizza boxes are made from recyclable cardboard, they rarely stay clean enough by the time they land on your kitchen counter. Once cheese, toppings and oil soak in, that contamination can make the material unusable in the recycling process.
That’s because paper and cardboard recycling can’t simply burn away food residue the way other materials can. Grease interferes with turning the fibres back into usable paper, and crews are trained to spot the tell-tale stains.
In Glasgow, for instance, recycling is collected by the Glasgow City Council, and what’s accepted can change depending on contamination and how items are presented. If you’re unsure, the safest approach is to keep food-stained card and paper out of the blue recycling bin and use your general waste or food waste options where available, then check the council’s online guidance for the most up-to-date local rules before putting it out.
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Ashley told viewers they can recycle a pizza box if it hasn’t been stained. But he said that if you use the box “and it gets dirty, and it has grease all over it”, then that part of it “cannot be recycled.”
However, he said parts of the box that haven’t been touched by grease can still go in the recycling. The key is separating the clean cardboard from the oily sections before you bin it.
Ashley added: “Some councils might be different. They might say to put it in your compost bin, but please check with your council, because not all councils are the same.”
Pizza tends to leave behind a film of grease from its cheese and toppings(Image: Getty)
To avoid contaminating the rest of your recycling after a takeaway, remove any stuck-on cheese, sauce or leftover crusts. Those should go into a food waste caddy if you have one, rather than being left inside the box.
Plastic dipping pots and sauce sachets should also be taken out before you deal with the cardboard. They should go in your general waste bin instead of recycling, because they’ve been in contact with food.