Eco and human friendly cookware input please

lexa34

Has anyone any ideas on which types of sauce-pans and oven-ware etc are the most eco-friendly and the cheapest way to get hold of some!?

My cheap old set is starting to look pretty dodgy with the non-stick looking like it is coming away. Don't want to eat the toxic non stick stuff but not have cooking experiences where everything sticks!

I don't mind spending money on something if it's going to outlast me, but still buy it the economical way possible! Eco-friendly in both senses of the words please!

So what are the options? Anodised aluminium, stainless steel, cast iron, enamel....?

chunkychocky

We have stainless steel pans I think and rarely burn anything on to them. You just get used to cooking without a non-stick surface. Actually I now destroy Teflon coated non-stick pans as I'm used to cooking at a much higher heat than these can tolerate. You can get ceramic-coated non-stick pans now that are considered much safer and more eco friendly than the hideous nasty Teflon things. They can also withstand higher temperatures so you don't end up eating bits of the coating every time you cook. No idea where to get any of these things from, or even how much they are!

Ben84

I don't think anyone has done any real research in to this, so I would assume that the longest lasting pans are the best investment for the environment and your money. There is also the option of second hand.

As for teflon, I have some of these pans and have had no problems with them. The good quality ones such as Tefal don't flake (I do use them with wooden utensils only) and they are extremely easy to cook with and clean up at the end. Teflon itself is harmless and inert, I would quite happily eat tablespoons of the stuff without any worries, the potential problem is when pans are overheated. The break down products are suspect, but you'd have to be really abusing your pans by leaving them empty with the gas on full to get them that hot. I don't believe I've ever overheated a pan to this extent, certainly saucepans are unlikely to be overheated as you'll normally have a large volume of liquid in them that will boil off reducing the temperature so unless it boils dry it cannot reach these high temperatures. Frying pans may be another matter if you're a careless cook though.

lexa34

I want new oven-ware and saucepans as the non stick is shredded now and having known about non stick leaching into food and doing you no good I really do not want no-stick but everything seems to be covered in the blinkin' stuff! I am to be as toxic-free as possible as so many known hormone disruptor's and carcinogens are in the mainstream non-stick I do not think cases of cancer and the extra amount of potentially harmful chemicals in our lives is a coincidence.

thenudeone

Ethical consumer had an article recently (but not on their free section of the web site yet). http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/

AFAIR, The most energy-efficient way to cook is an induction hob but these son't work with some pans (eg glass) but they did say it's not worth switching hob, if you would need to buy new pans to use it. Next best was a gas hob because much more of the energy is turned into heat.

Ben84

I'm wondering where you have been looking, because uncoated steel saucepans are still very widely available in lots of shops or online?

rogerblack

lexa34 wrote: »

Has anyone any ideas on which types of sauce-pans and oven-ware etc are the most eco-friendly and the cheapest way to get hold of some!?

The 'eco friendly' bit is basically !!!!!!!!.
Over their lifetime, a set of pans will use _way_ more energy in actual use than in construction.

As others have said, induction is about the most efficient way to go from electricity to heat (85%+ - halogen and other sorts of hobs leak rather more heat out the bottom, or up the sides of the pan in the case of gas).

http://www.green-pan.co.uk/uk/home-700.htm is a range of pans that are made with a ceramic non-stick coating - but they are very expensive.
Some of their ranges work with induction. There is lots of poorly substantiated greenwash on the site - but there are health concerns some have raised about overheated PTFE that are not clearly wrong, and the fact you can accidentally overheat the pans a bit without damaging the coating is also good.

Probably the cheapest most eco-friendly way is simple uncoated carbon-steel cookware.
For cooking some items, this can be simply seasoned with oil, to provide a non-stick surface.
And you can refresh the non-stick surface if you screw it up with a metal scouring pad, and then a teaspoon of oil heated onto the pan.

A 7.99 frying pan can literally last you a lifetime. (and indeed probably your grandchildrens)

The 'greenest' thing you can do is probably to change the way you cook.
Get a well-insulated oven, an induction cooker, a slow cooker, and an energy meter.
Work out how to cook things using the least energy.
The exact type of pan is fairly irrelevant.
Especially if you properly recycle the pans into the 'metal' bin at your recycling yard, the additional energy used in its construction is minimal.