The PIZZycle Reusable Pizza Box Is Good for Pizza and the Environment

In Italy, you order a pizza and eat the entire thing yourself, right then and there. For some reason, this is not common practice in the U.S.

It’s not that we don’t love pizza. Americans consume about three billion pizzas per year. From what I gather, it’s that we love different things about pizza: its shareability, its ability to be reheated, and, most notably, its mobility.

Though Italians formally defined the concept of pizza at the start of the 18th century, Americans are credited with the creation of the pizza box in the mid-20th century. Since then, its design has remained largely unchanged. Surprisingly, it is a German company, PIZZycle, that may change the way we think about transporting pizza.

For the last 70 years or so, most pizza boxes have been constructed with corrugated cardboard. Even though this particular paper product is usually made with 52 percent recycled materials, we’re cutting down approximately 4,290,000 trees each year in the U.S. to meet the annual market need of two billion pizza boxes. On top of that, despite the fact that 94 percent of Americans have access to community paper recycling programs, plenty of well-intentioned folks are confused about whether you can recycle pizza boxes (the answer: yes, you can). As a result, our quick and easy meal has a long-lasting and harmful impact on the environment.

Which is why it’s time that we all get ourselves a PIZZycle.

Normally, I’m not a fan of kitchen tools that serve one niche purpose, but I believe that every household needs this container designed solely and specifically to transport pizza. While it may take time for restaurants to get on board (and off cardboard) to implement community rental programs that facilitate zero-waste deliveries, it’s easy for individuals to cut back on their consumption of pizza boxes in other ways. I place takeaway orders for pick up so that I can bring my PIZZycle to the restaurant, making sure to arrive early enough that they haven’t boxed my order yet. And when I dine at a pizzeria, I also take it with me, just in case there are leftovers. My favorite occasions to use my PIZZycle, though, are when I make a pizza at home in an Ooni, then transport it to friends or family.

The PIZZycle is a meticulously designed container. It is round and sturdy – which helps guard the structural integrity of the pizza and its toppings since it doesn’t slide around during transportation – with vents around its circumference to allow steam to escape evenly to prevent sogginess. It’s also stylish in a modern, minimalistic way and comes in a variety of colors with fun names like “olive,” “dough,” and, my favorite, “red wine.” In the spirit of convenience that inspired both pizza and pizza boxes, the PIZZycle is also dishwasher-safe.

For the price of a pizza in an average American city these days, it’s more than worth investing in a PIZZycle — if not to protect the environment, then at least to protect your pizza.

Elena Valeriote is a writer of stories about food, farming, culture, and travel that explore the connection between people and place. Her work has appeared in publications including Gastro Obscura, Modern Farmer, and Life & Thyme.