US researchers have developed a novel method to recycle soiled pizza boxes using dimethyl ether (DME), a condensable hygroscopic gas, that enables the removal of contaminants from heavily soiled packaging.Though made of fiber-based corrugated cardboard, pizza contaminants such as sauces and oils complicate the reuse of pizza boxes, resulting in municipal prohibitions on the recycling of used pizza boxes in cardboard recycling streams.
