These 100% eco-friendly pots and pans are healthy, too
So many things labeled “green” are actually pretty far from being truly eco-friendly. Pots and pans labeled ‘green cookware’ are no different. This costume is so big that many of the pots and pans are painted green and are therefore even labeled “green” or eco-friendly (type eco-friendly pots into a search engine, results include green-colored pots) while that the fact is the green paint itself has toxic ingredients that are unhealthy for food and the environment in many ways.
What determines the ecological value of a product is, in fact, what is inside it or what it is made of. To summarize, there are mainly 3-4 aspects that determine the ecological value of a product:
What is it made of:
The raw material plays an important role in the production of an ecological product. If the raw material is toxic, the product can never be called green or ecological. In the case of cookware, the metals conventionally used to make it release many toxic byproducts during mining, mining, processing, and finishing. Procuring the raw material requires massive deforestation to create mines and quarries (for ceramic cookware ingredients) affecting wildlife and the lives of people living nearby. Can this be eco friendly? No way!
How is it done?
Even if you choose a green raw material, the way it is manufactured can affect the environment if chemicals are used at any stage and liquid or gaseous toxic waste is released into the environment. It is important that the manufacturing process does not affect the environment or the health of the people who work in it.
How does it work?
Another determining factor is how it is cooked? Most nonstick cookware releases toxic gases when heated and poisons the environment. Most metal cookware requires high heat to accomplish anything while cooking. This is because metals heat up and cool down at the same time, and it takes a higher amount of heat to cook the same food compared to a truly eco-friendly pot (read on to find out which one that is).
Another aspect that is also important is what happens at the end of its life cycle: truly eco-friendly cookware must be fully biodegradable. The treatment of non-biodegradable waste is a challenge that everyone faces and if a product is not biodegradable, it is certainly not eco-friendly.
The only pot that is green in all 4 aspects is the cookware made of pure clay:
The raw material is completely natural and non-toxic. It does not affect the environment while harvesting or processing. In fact, people who work with pure clay have reported that it has therapeutic effects on their health. So the raw material is truly ecological – CHECK!
Pure clay pots are made without using any chemical product. They are made the old-fashioned way on a potter’s wheel with dexterous hands and that is certainly not harmful to the environment. This time-honored method of making pots from pure clay makes their manufacturing process absolutely eco-friendly: CHECK!
When pots made of this healthy material cook food, they don’t leach out toxins or destroy nutrients. Rather, they cook food with gentle far-infrared heat that keeps the nutritional value of food intact. Also, at the end of their useful life cycle, they can be disposed of anywhere: they will return to the same land they came from without causing harm to the environment, making them fully biodegradable and therefore eco-friendly. CHECK!