Can Wax Paper Be Recycled? Environmentally Pleasant Alternate options

Wax paper can’t be recycled with different paper gadgets as a result of the wax coating interferes with the recycling course of. Nonetheless, there are nonetheless loads of totally different choices to get rid of your wax paper in an environmentally pleasant means.

What Precisely Is Wax Paper?

Wax paper is parchment paper that’s been coated with a skinny layer of wax on either side. This makes it immune to moisture and supplies a non-stick floor.

The vast majority of wax paper is coated in a food-safe paraffin wax, which is both made utilizing petroleum or vegetable oil. Some manufacturers of wax paper additionally use soybean oil. 

Wax papers that use vegetable or soybean oil are a extra environmentally pleasant choice than people who use petroleum-based paraffin, which is a by-product of the unsustainable fossil gasoline trade. Word that paraffin wax is usually referred to as mineral wax, however they’re the identical factor. 

Why Wax Paper Can’t Be Recycled

The coating in wax paper is water resistant, and paper must be shredded with water as one of many first steps in recycling. This makes it unsuitable to be processed alongside most different paper waste. It’s additionally typically coated with grease or further oils from meals, which usually are not accepted by recycling services.

Somewhat than throwing your wax paper within the trash, there are a number of choices for reusing it first. 

Methods to Reuse Wax Paper 

Somewhat than throw away your wax paper after one use, you’ll be able to typically use it a number of instances to increase its helpful life. Reusing an merchandise as many instances as potential is at all times a superb, environmentally pleasant choice, particularly if it could possibly’t be recycled afterward. 

Listed below are some concepts for reusing waxed paper:

• Clear and reuse. If the wax paper has been used to wrap sandwiches or baked items it may be wiped down with chilly water and cleaning soap, dried, and used once more. Be sure to don’t use sizzling water as this could soften the wax coating. By no means reuse wax paper if it’s been used to wrap uncooked meat, eggs, or cheese.  
• Take away limescale spots. Rub metallic faucets with wax paper to take away limescale spots.
• Lubricate backyard instruments. Rub your backyard shears with wax paper to assist defend them from rust and add slightly lubrication. 
• Loosen a caught zipper. Take a small piece of wax paper and rub the zipper and zip to coat them in a skinny layer of wax which ought to assist get issues unstuck. 
• Create a DIY fireplace starter. Make your individual DIY fireplace starter by wrapping some dryer lint in used wax paper. 
• Arts and crafts. Used and cleaned wax paper additionally makes a water resistant paper boat for actions with the youngsters.

What to Use As a substitute of Wax Paper

You might determine that you simply’d choose to modify away from utilizing wax paper. Should you use wax paper for wrapping meals, an analogous but extra environmentally pleasant choice is reusable beeswax and material wrap. These are often made by coating material with a mix of beeswax, tree resin, and a necessary oil like jojoba. 

Beeswax and material wraps like these from Bees’ Wrap and Abeego could be cleaned utilizing chilly water and cleaning soap and reused for as much as a yr. You may as well make your individual beeswax wraps at residence. Word that beeswax wraps aren’t really helpful for wrapping uncooked meat, although. 

Should you use wax paper to create a non-stick floor when baking, then switching to reusable baking mats is a greater concept. 

Brown paper baggage can be utilized to retailer fruit and greens, and for wrapping sandwiches and different meals gadgets. They are much simpler to recycle or compost than wax paper.  

Somewhat than wrapping your meals, retailer it in plastic-free storage containers as an alternative. There are many different methods you’ll be able to work in the direction of a zero-waste kitchen, too, together with storing meals in a bowl with a plate on prime or a reusable zipper bag.

Can Wax Paper Be Composted?

Whereas it could possibly’t be recycled, the excellent news is that some wax paper could be composted at residence. Should you use wax paper made with vegetable or soybean oil, it may be added in small portions to your compost. The wax is kind of arduous for the microbes in compost to interrupt down, so rip your wax paper into small items and add it to your compost slightly at a time. Wax paper ought to biodegrade at across the identical charge as leaf mulch.   

Wax paper that makes use of petroleum-based paraffin shouldn’t be composted as it could possibly add undesirable hydrocarbons to your compost. Inorganic compounds, like hydrocarbons, are very troublesome for the microbes in your compost to interrupt down.

Should you do use wax paper, the very best type to purchase is one with unbleached, pure paper, and a wax coating made utilizing vegetable or soybean oil.