Hey, Football Fans: Recycle Pizza Boxes, Please!
Most pizza lovers stocking up for football’s championship game know they can recycle pizza boxes, but an alarming 40 percent say they don’t always do so.
That’s the main finding of a national survey by sustainable packaging leader DS Smith, which said pizza boxes are indeed 100 percent recyclable. Pizza boxes can be easily recycled providing any crumbs and cheese are removed before they go into recyclable trash.
With 12.5 million pizzas expected to be sold on Sunday, Feb. 12, that’s almost enough material from 12-inch by 12-inch boxes to stretch from the Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia to the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City … and back.
In the run-up to the NFL’s Big Game between those two teams, DS Smith is calling on all fans to properly recycle pizza boxes.
“We are driven to make changes both big and small in how the packaging industry operates to contribute to a more sustainable future,” said DS Smith’s Melanie Galloway, vice president, sales, marketing and innovation. “Part of that mission includes educating consumers on what they can do to be part of the solution, too, even something as simple as being sure to recycle your pizza boxes.”
The company survey, taken Jan. 27-30, found that two-thirds (67 percent) of adults believe pizza boxes are recyclable – ranking fifth among a list of popular items. Leading the way is plastic water bottles, with 88 percent of respondents saying they can be recycled. Next came newspapers or magazines (82 percent) and glass jars and milk cartons (both at 75 percent).
Even with high recognition among consumers that pizza containers should go into recyclable trash, three of five adults say they don’t always do so – with 19 percent saying they never do, 11 percent only sometimes and 10 percent rarely.
Still, a majority of those surveyed – 60 percent – respond that they recycle, with 43 percent saying they always do so and 17 percent saying most of the time.
DS Smith wants all consumers to know that pizza boxes can be recycled – important because any increase in recycling contributes to a circular economy designed to replace problem plastics, take carbon out of supply chains and prove innovative recycling solutions.
Recovered fibers can be reused as many as 10 times by paper and packaging companies to make new boxes, diverting waste from landfills and incinerators and toward local recycling facilities.
For its part, DS Smith produces a recyclable pizza pad, an insert under the pies used in boxes by major, nationally acclaimed pizza brands. The packaging company sells millions of the pads each year, recording a burst in production amid the frenzy of the football season’s final weeks.
The customizable, 100 percent recyclable pad is flat on one side, facing the bottom of the box, and wavy on the top, keeping the pizza crust crisp and dry. That so-called fluting also helps hold the temperature in the box during deliveries, DS Smith said.
The DS Smith product marks an example of the company’s renewable, fiber-based packaging solutions for hundreds of thousands of products for both traditional and e-commerce retailers, covering wine boxes and ready-meal trays to cardboard coolers and fresh fruit trays.
It marks just one of many ways that DS Smith uses innovation and imagination to create sustainable packaging solutions that support the transition to a circular economy that aims to reduce and eliminate waste and advocates for the reuse of materials.
The poll was taken Jan. 27-30 with 1,221 respondents, a total that generally has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was conducted using an online data collection methodology with the research firm Dynata.
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SIAL America Cross-Country F&B Show Returns in March
SIAL, the cross-category food and beverage industry network, announced that SIAL America, will take place from March 28-30 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The USDA-endorsed networking and lead-generation event will provide importers, food service companies, distributors, retailers, wholesalers and restaurateurs the opportunity to network with exhibiting food companies from around the world. Attendees will explore the latest in food products and technology via SIAL Innovation, and attend educational seminars devoted to the latest food industry trends.
This extensive how floor features product categories that include Organic & Wellness, Beverages, Grocery, Sweets & Bakery, Fruits & Vegetables, Seafood, Dairy Products, Frozen Foods, Snack Foods, Meats.
Last March, SIAL America made its debut welcoming over 4,600 industry professionals worldwide, delving into cutting-edge food trends such as plant-based alternatives, animal-product traceability, and chocolate and sweets innovations. SIAL will stage six months after the SIAL Paris flagship event drew more than 7,000 exhibitors in October 2022. Domestic and international exhibitors including Real California Milk, Supreme Crab & Seafood, and Haig’s Delicacies have already signed on to participate, along with USA Rice, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Godshall’s, American Beverage Markets, Skechers, Source Logistics and more to be announced.
SIAL America will again feature matchmaking services and VIP networking spaces to connect like-minded businesses. The show will take place next to Emerald’s International Pizza Expo.
Attendee registration for SIAL America is open,
SIAL America is presented in partnership with Emerald and Comexposium. The partnership leverages the respective strengths of Emerald’s leading live events footprint in the United States and Comexposium’s preeminent SIAL global food brand and network.
SIAL Network is the world’s largest network of food and drink fairs. Its 11 regular shows (SIAL Paris, SIAL Canada Montreal, Toronto, SIAL China, SIAL Shenzhen, Food & Drinks Malaysia, SIAL India, SIAL Interfood in Jakarta, Gourmet Selection, Djazagro and The Cheese & Dairy Show ) bring together 16,000 exhibitors and 700,000 visitors from 200 countries.
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Winter Fancy Food Day 2: Chefs and Cheese
By A.J. Flick
Senior Editor
The second day of the Specialty Food Association’s 2023 Winter Fancy Food Show was my day of meeting chefs and eating a lot of cheese.
The prsonal highlight was meeting Chef Stephanie Izard, who was the first woman named “Top Chef” (season 4) and one of my favorite Top Chef chefs. She also is from Arizona, as I am, so I was rooting for the “home chef.” Chef Izard has a new line of sauces, spices and add-ons developed out of her esteemed Chicago (and now LA) restaurant, This Little Goat. When I walked up to her booth, she was stirring a pan of halved Brussel sprouts, bathed in her Asian sauce. They looked good, but I’m not a Brussel sprouts fan. A friend of mine, Robert, loves them and so wants me to love them when he roasts them and slathers butter on them, but I just don’t like Brussel sprouts.
Until now. I have to break the news to Robert that I do love Brussel sprouts now, Chef Izard’s Brussel sprouts! She adds her new Everything Crunch puffed rice toppers on them for the contrast in textures that she’s famous for. I’ll have to make them for Robert now and show him how good Brussel sprouts can really taste!
I also was looking forward to meeting Chef Michael Tashman, who was a fabulous line of flavored butters. I was especially impressed with the Truffle Butter flavor, such a balance of truffle and high-quality butter. Chef Tashman is new to the CPG world, but he has plan to present more “chef forward” products to the specialty food market. He called it “chef to table.” (He didn’t coin the term, but likes calling it that.)
As for cheese, I stopped by a wine and cheese party thrown by the nice folks at Beehive Cheese. I tasted some of their cheeses last summer in Portland at the American Cheese Society Conference. Here, they presented a whole table of artisanal cheese at a Las Vegas wine bar, Garagiste. Beehive Cheese is a family business, not only the family who started it, but each Beehive team member I talked to spoke about how great it is to work there and how they are all treated life family. You’ll be hearing much more about Beehive in Gourmet News!
My second stop of the night was at the top of the Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort, in the Foundation Room, UK in Las Vegas, held to celebrate cheese from the United Kingdom. Yes, there was everything from Stilton to a truffle cheddar (which was gone by the time I got there!). So I ended up having Utah cheese for appetizers and British cheese for the main course. I’m not complaining!
Earlier in the day, I stopped by to visit our friends at The French Farm. They’re excited to introduce an award-winning line of artisanal from Francis Miot from the southwest of France. Not only that, but The French Farm has added to its own Epicurian line of products, jars of tasty spring and summer veggies such as Zucchini & Ramp Spread, and some aiolis. Yum!
I also spent some quality time learning more at Le Gruyere, the fine cheese from Switzerland. And you’ll learn more, too, in our upcoming Spring Cheese Guide.
I had more time yesterday to do some wandering, I sampled chicken jerky from Brave Good Kind; Simply Animals, a better-for-you lightly frosted animal crackers; lemon and ginger Snaps from Stauffer’s, Pink Sauce from Dave’s Gourmet (you’ll be hearing more about that) and delicious dumplings from Chef Kim’s.
I had fun decorating (and eating) a little gingerbread man at the Signature Brands booth. I got a tour of the new Jelly Belly products – at long last, the Butter Beer jelly beans have landed! And, there’s another Harry Potter product on the horizon that fans will love (but I can’t say what it is yet!) Jelly Belly is expanding its reach into the greeting card market with a tasty new Easter greeting card, too. You’ll read more about it in the March issue of Gourmet News in our Winter Fancy Food Show roundup.
One more day to go – can we make it? Yes, we will!