Cellophane wrappers round magazines

Primrose

I get inundated with weekend magazines and their advertising ,leaflets which are wrapped in cellophane. Is this the same material as clingfilm and can it be recycled for covering dishes whilst in the microwave or for wrapping food up in for the freezer?

cutestkids

I wouldn't to be honest the plastics used for cover magazines are unlikely to be food grade, they may not be freezer or heat safe and could break down allowing chemicals to leach into the food they are covering.

kboss2010

No, they'll melt or burn and give off toxic fumes!

optimistic

I use these wrappers as 'doggy poo bags' I know you can see the 'item' but for clearing up around the garden it doesn't matter to me. I too like to re use where I can and can't think of anything else for them.

flubberyzing

I wouldn't use them with food personally... I'll sometimes use them as a baggie to pick up other rubbish when tidying, or to put some messy food scraps in, but otherwise they just get binned.

pigpen

plus you don't know whose grubby little paws have been touching them in the shop..

I chuck such things in the recycling.

piecemeal

I save them and use them as outer bags for things I freeze. So if I have a pack of 4 pork chops, we want them in 2's, so I use cheap sandwich bags I buy on a roll as inner bags and use the magazine ones to put the two packs of two chops inside

Chris25

I tend to use them for storing things in. For example, if I buy clothes as presents, rather than keeping them a carrier bag, I put them into the clear plastic bags & then I can easily see exactly what I've got.

hobbitfancier

I use them to pack up clothes and items for eBay and protect them from rain and wear when they're in the padded envelope. Irritates me no end when someone chucks a top in the jiffy with no protection from rain.

GreyQueen

Primrose wrote: »

I get inundated with weekend magazines and their advertising ,leaflets which are wrapped in cellophane. Is this the same material as clingfilm and can it be recycled for covering dishes whilst in the microwave or for wrapping food up in for the freezer?

I don't think those wrappers are cellophane, I think they're polythene.

Cellophane is slightly brittle and tears. Think of the sleeve over your jaffa cakes and compare that to the bags the mags come in. The outer wrappers of some sweets are crinkly cellophane, think Qu*lity Street etc.

I wouldn't use any plastic in the microwave unless it had been specifically marketed as suitable for that purpose. The real deal isn't dear enough to risk getting plastics into your food.

If I didn't need the plastic bags to be used for storage or cleaning up something nasty, I'd bin them.

esuhl

GreyQueen wrote: »

I don't think those wrappers are cellophane, I think they're polythene.

Yeah -- magazine rappers are usually made of plastic (often polyethylene) -- I've never seen them made of cellophane!

GreyQueen wrote: »

I wouldn't use any plastic in the microwave unless it had been specifically marketed as suitable for that purpose. The real deal isn't dear enough to risk getting plastics into your food.

I'm not sure, but I don't think there would be much risk in getting plastics in your food. Plastic is pretty inert and should just pass through your body. I'd worry more about any contaminants arising from the fact that the plastics haven't been prepared in a food-grade environment.