Green product Saturdays: Waxed paper

Soy-based waxed paper
If You Care all natural waxed paper
This is 100 percent unbleached, all-natural waxed paper.
If you've been reading this blog for long, you know that "all-natural" doesn't mean anything. No one is producing products with molecules not found on earth, so anyone can claim "all natural.
What the brand, If You Care, means is that this waxed paper is biodegradable, landfill-safe and made using renewable resources. The packaging is made from recycled paper and printed with vegetable-based inks. It's not bleached, so they aren't slopping chlorine into the environment. The wax traditionally used on waxed paper is paraffin, a petroleum based product. (Why does gas cost so much? Part of the reason is that we're using the petroleum it's made from in everything else, including your waxed paper.) Instead, If You Care uses soybeans for the same waxed feeling and protection. And there's no sharp tearing edge, but it still tears fine. You end up feeling like you could eat the whole roll with no adverse effects.
This 75-square-foot package can run between $4 and $5, so doing the right thing isn't going to come cheap. If helping Ma Nature doesn't have you ready to pull out a fiver, shop around. There are other brands offering similar products. The keys are: unbleached and soy wax. (Some brands offer unbleached, soy waxed paper bags to replace our plastic ones, too.)
It's worth looking into because we need to start moving away from plastic wrap. Plastic wrap doesn't degrade in landfills. You don't want the convenient cover as you microwave the Spaghettio's to be sitting in a landfill long after Junior has departed this earth.
If that's not enough of a reason, take a long hard look at that kid you're microwaving meals for. There's some suspicion, even in the scientific community, that plastic wrap may be leaching chemicals when put into contact with hot food. Like say in a microwave.
Don't believe me? Stick a piece of plastic wrap against some tomato sauce and stick it in the fridge. Check it in a day. The plastic wrap will have taken on some of the tomato color. If the tomato is leaching into the plastic in a cold setting, what is the plastic doing to the tomato in a hot setting?
No, it's not proven, but do you want to be the guinea pig?
Once again, the earth-friendly choice is the you-friendly choice.