Pizza generates guilt. Some people feel guilty eating the calories and carbs. Others feel guilty because of the waste. You use paper plates that get thrown out. And, since the box won’t fit in the fridge, you have to wrap each leftover slice in aluminum foil, which gets thrown out, too.

What to do? William Walsh has a solution.

Walsh’s company, e.c.o. Incorporated, has created Green Box, a pizza box that acts as its own paper plates and storage unit.

The box’s lid is perforated to tear into four square plates. The bottom of the box folds over into a space-friendly storage container for leftover slices.

How did Walsh come up with the Green Box? In college, he lived in a house with forty football players who opted to throw out their dirty dishes instead of washing them. One day, they were eating pizza when Walsh noticed grease dripping down his housemate’s shirt. Walsh tore the lid from the pizza box, ripped it into makeshift plates, and handed them to his fellow diners. An idea was born.

Walsh, an engineering student, bought 150 pizza boxes and went to work with a ruler and an exacto knife and experimented on improving the design.

With business partners, Ned Kensing and Jennifer Wright, he later filed a patent for the box.  

In 2007, they were granted the patent and went door-to-door to pizza restaurants with their new design. Things moved slowly as the partners worked other jobs and finished up business school.

In the last month, though, interest in Green Box has skyrocketed. What happened?

Wright used Twitter to send a message and web link to actor Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher, who was the first user to reach one million Twitter followers, re-tweeted her message with a note that said “Smart.”

Overnight, Green Box became a sensation. Walsh’s company received 1,500 domestic and 150 international email requests for the product.

They posted a YouTube video, and in five days received over 435,000 views.

Several pizza chains are reviewing the Green Box. Walsh wants to have regional distribution of the packaging so that the company’s carbon footprint is as low as possible.