Aluminum Foil is affordable, versatile (I use it in baking, cooking, roasting, grilling, food storage…), and across America 220 containers of aluminum foil are used up every second.
It seems like a better choice than plastic wrap. But there, we’d be mistaken.
Aluminum foil is actually far worse for the environment than plastic wrap across the board – use of fossil fuels, water pollution, human health impacts, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Mining bauxite (the raw material in aluminum) and processing it takes a lot of energy. To compare, producing one ton of plastic wrap uses 83% less energy and 88% less greenhouse gas emissions than the same amount of aluminum foil.
One reason we’ve been convinced aluminum foil is better than other disposable options is its ability to be reused and recycled. But, that’s not really the full story.
Aluminum foil can be reused a handful of times. But to make it better than plastic wrap, you’d have to reuse it six times. How many of us do that?
And while it technically can be recycled indefinitely, most recycle centers won’t take it.
But the worst offender of aluminum foil isn’t even all that.
While cooking in aluminum pots and pans is fine, cooking with aluminum foil isn’t. Aluminum will leach into your food at unsafe levels and has been associated with Alzheimer’s, bone diseases, and can even reduce your brain cells (yikes!).
World Destruction!
Best Green Solution: Find a different food wrap situation like Bees’ Wrap which becomes flexible with the warmth from your hands and forms an airtight seal as it cools. When you need something for cooking, baking, or grilling try a silicon baking mat. As a last resort, buy recycled aluminum foil.
Don’t Be Tempted: Don’t throw your food away! Experts agree the bigger environmental concern is that you eat the food you buy. Food waste is the bigger green culprit than what you wrap it in.
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