ALUMINIUM FOIL

Foil is not a great alternative to cling film. The amount of energy needed to produce aluminium foil from its raw materials is huge. Luckily for us, it’s endlessly recyclable and melting used aluminium requires only 5% of the energy used to make aluminium from ore.

Aluminium Foil with burnt residue on it
Aluminium Foil rolled into a ball for recycling

Recycling Foil

Since this foil is just badly burnt and isn’t covered in food waste, it’s good to go. The black burnt area is just carbon and it disintegrates in the recycling process. A little bit of grease, oil and food residue is also fine as it equally is burned away. Just roll it up and pop it into your recycling. When recycling foil, the bigger the ball the better. Foil balls smaller than tennis balls sometimes don’t make it to the recycling facility.

Tom Hunt cooks 'dirty', that is straight on coals.

HOW TO STOP USING FOIL

LESS IS ALWAYS BEST!

  • Load up on gastronorm lids and pan lids, then roast in deep trays with a lid on.

  • Invest in Flexsil Silicone lids for an airtight cook. Keep in mind the 1/1 lids have been reported as being flimsy. The smaller ones are much more durable.

  • Use compostable baking paper to wrap food.

  • Be like Chef Tom Hunt (pictured) and cook ‘dirty’ straight on the coals.