Recycle This Pittsburgh

Parchment Paper

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Parchment paper is often used in cooking in the kitchen. It is covered with a thin coat of silicon which makes it heat resistant so it can be used in the oven. Because this paper is typically used with food products, you should not put used parchment paper into Pittsburgh’s curbside recycling- though the box that parchment paper typically comes in can be recycled (see below).

You can reuse parchment paper several times to cut down on waste. Composting is also an option, though read below for some caveats.

Recycle the box.

Parchment paper typically comes in a paperboard box and is rolled around a heavy paper tube. Both of these pieces can go in curbside recycling. Often the box has a thin metal strip to help cut the paper into sheets- remove this thin strip before putting the box into recycling. If you drop off metal at a scrap yard, you could probably include this strip with your other metals. Don’t include the metal strip in your curbside recycling!

Can parchment paper be composted?

Parchment paper will biodegrade so it can be composted.

There are some concerns (though no actual research that Recycle This Pittsburgh has found) that bleached parchment paper might leach dioxins into compost if the paper was bleached with chlorine. This is one reason why unbleached parchment paper is sometimes recommended if you want to compost your parchment paper. Again, we could not locate any research specific to this question. It’s also unclear if all white parchment paper is still bleached using chlorine. If you are concerned, consider switching to unbleached parchment paper.

(BTW – Recycle This Pittsburgh reached out to Costco regarding their Kirkland brand parchment paper and received this response: “The parchment paper is not bleached, but is made from bleached pulp using ECF (elemental chlorine free).” Read more here.)