Plastic-Free Cooking—Is it Possible?

by Alexa Napoleon, Rodale.com plastic-free crusader

In the small-wins progression to a plastic-free household, I began by tackling storage containers and liquids in the first year, and this month have focused on reduced plastic use around fruits and freezer storage.  But, as with any large change, there are many steps to sustaining a new ideal.

If you are an avid cook like me and enjoy your nightly adventures in the kitchen (albeit, a nightly fight with my kitchen for more counter space), your stock of cooking utensils is extremely important.  In fact, you almost form a tight bond with your favorite utensils and know just when to pull for your trusty tools based on the dish that’s brewing or the small mess that’s stewing.  So, when looking at having to replace these inanimate friends, it can be disheartening and leaving you feeling a bit void.  My collection also brings back memories of the funny day on free broken bicycles, collecting needed utensils at yard sales, to the beautiful wedding shower where I got a full set of anything I could possibly need, all matching perfectly in black.  Replacing this set seems a bit hard to swallow.  What will I do without the round slotted, slightly cupped, grey spatula boy?

Read More: How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet

With this internal conflict, just ditching my collection cold-turkey was not going to happen.  So I began looking at my pans instead, to try to influence myself using a reverse methodology.  My pans are certainly the reason I chose these utensils, right?  Like my utensils, I have a wonderful collection of non-stick, but not Teflon, pots and pans.  From everything I’ve read and heard, we should ultimately be reducing our confidence in these pans, but they are just so easy to use and clean.  Of course, these pans are driving my dependence on plastic utensils.  The danger in the pans really lies in a scratched surface (or at least that is what I like to tell myself, to make it “OK”).  If that non-stick coating is disrupted from metal utensils, the toxic chemicals are released straight into the food.  Plastic it is!

Read More: Go Plastic-Free Without Going Crazy

This got me thinking…my mother and ancestors used only iron and metal and have yet to make a switch to non-stick pans or plastic utensils.  If they got along just fine with metal, why can’t I?  My husband, knowing I was trying hard to reduce our plastic use, had bought me my first iron pan for Christmas.  Since unwrapping it, it sat unused on our cabinet tops because I was afraid to use it with my plastic utensils, fearing it would get so hot it would melt the tools.  Really, if I’m already afraid of them melting, WHY am I using them?!?  I have not microwaved in plastic for years now, because of the warnings of toxic release when plastic is heated, so WHY am I still using plastic tools that are only being heated while I cook and actually use them the only way they were intended?

Amidst this challenge, I am pregnant, so this also gives me more ambition to find a solution to anything that could possibly release unneeded toxins into my food.  After doing some reading about the use of non-stick pans while pregnant, I came across a scientific blip on anemia and pregnancy.  In the second half of pregnancy (and I’m one week from being at that point), a pregnant woman’s blood volume greatly increases, increasing the number of red blood cells in the body.  Red blood cells require iron, so a pregnant mom has to be very conscious of iron consumption and avoiding anemia.  To my surprise, a recommended way for a pregnant woman to increase her iron intake is not only by a more focused diet, but by simply cooking in iron pans!  Cooking in iron pans can increase iron intake in foods by 80% [UCSF Health, Cleveland Clinic]. So, why am I resisting this change?  My Sunday errands were set.  In addition to my weekly fruit and veggie stock-up trip, I was off to Fante’s in the heart of Philadelphia’s Italian Market for iron pans. (For any Philadelphians, check out Fante’s for an entire collection of Lodge Logic pre-seasoned cast iron pans and other non-stick, made-in-America cookware.  You’ll be quickly addicted to this locally-owned and packed kitchen paradise!)

In my first night cooking in my iron pans, I was stuck when it came time to flip my meats and toss the veggies.  What do I use if I can’t use my plastic utensils?  I reached for the metal tongs from my grill…it was all I had.  When the meal was over, and it came time for cleaning, the plastic tools weren’t cutting it in the scraping battle of the pan, so I was stuck using a metal fish spatula (the only metal spatula I owned).  So, the reverse methodology of going straight for the pans has now forced me to buy metal utensils, just to be able to complete a meal.  As with my other plastic challenges, I found this to be another small investment financially, with a bit of phasing of the plastic products.  To get committed, I have again started small, collecting a few metal essentials like spatulas, a closed and slotted stainless spoon, and wooden mixing spoons.  These have replaced their plastic counterparts in my collection, and will be a new collection effort for the spring.

So, if you are having trouble ditching your plastic tools, try changing your cookware first!  If you choose traditional cookware that does not require the use of plastic of soft utensils, it will strengthen your energy to change and help eliminate your emotional attachment to your plastics.