Plastic Cutting Boards and Microplastics in your Food

I have a synthetic rubber cutting board. I am not sure how different a natural rubber cutting board will be, but my synthetic rubber cutting board (Hi-soft) is not gentler to my knife edge. I think if all you do is up and down cutting motion, then a rubber cutting board can be gentler. However, I slide my knife across the cutting boards with a push cutting motion, and my rubber cutting board actually dull my knives faster than my wood cutting boards.

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One of the first horror movies I’ve watched. It gave me nightmares for weeks, so I’d say it’s a good one. Still stands up well.

Except that televisions never go to snow anymore. It’s like watching 2001 now. Pan Am? Pay phones?

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I meant the effects. Obviously, we are not in the 80s anymore.

It seems that acquiring bits of knowledge and pondering the issue of reducing plastic in the food environment, we think mainly about utensils and food storage. However, it hit me between the eyes that every time I sweep, I am probably flicking micro and nano plastics into the air because the bristles are plastic. So in addition to tampico brushes for dishes, I suggest corn straw brooms, horse hair dust brushes, and palmyra push brooms. Good sources include Lehman’s, Old City, and DQB. Also, the kitchen sponge was pitched for linen dishcloths and towels. They significantly outperform cotton ones. Cotton/poly blends are just not as effective, plus the old plastic issue.

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The bamboo dishcloths you can buy at most big chinese grocery stores are vey good, don’t smell, the fibers provide a little abrasion which is good for scrubbing and also absorb water beautifully making them great for wiping your counters and sink. washable but will shrink in the dryer You can work these to rags, too but it takes months in my house! There are no better alternatives in my view, the swedish sponge cloths, the young folks like or those “paper disposable cloths are a joke, not to mention the sponge on a stick that dispenses detergent too, so silly and useless. Below is a pic of an amazon sample. There are quite a variety of these on Amazon, but so far I prefer the very simple 3-packs from the grocery store if I can find them.

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OK. Twist my arm. Force me to go to a Chinese grocery store!

I love Burgundies, especially Gevrey Chambertain, which is a very rare treat (once a year?). Many moons ago, when visiting California, I came across an excellent Pinot Noir which was only available at the winery (Domaine Carneiros). I got nailed with a hefty duty at Canadian Customs (I always declare everything), but it was worth it. This was before 9/11, when you could hand carry stuff.

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JenKalb - Just curious what brand they are. The tag looks like Takecn or something like that. Do they have a soft side and the other a more scrubby side?

forget about the tag, thats not a recommendation, just one of the many versions available on amazon, so I could show a picture. They are not rough on either side its just that the fibers are separate enough that they actually do something to remove stuck on food from dishes etc and clean a tabletop dry enough that it does not have to be wiped down with a towel, unlike the very soft microfiber cloths which neither absorb or scrub. I will attach a picture of the ones I buy at the grocery - note, I had a huge supply and havent checked for a couple of years, these are from Taiwan with no english label.

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Dish cloth as in a cleaning implement or a drying tool, or both?

The next time the surgeon is in my liver, I’m going to request microplastic content of the biopsied pieces😵

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Thanks. Apparently they make for a happy homemaker!

LOL, cute pic insnt it! its amazing how important it can be - I remember how picky my Mom was about this kind of stuff, I guess I inherited that trait.

This is all I can add


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Twin sons of a different mother.

Very helpful. I will stick with linen over rayon. Although rayon may not be susceptible to micro or nanoplastic shedding (I do not know if that is a fact.), making it can be an highly caustic process.

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yes - I could have told you it is wood/cellulose fiber - there is a great deal of that being used in upscale clothing today . Any industrial product is going to have some downsides. maybe the rougher linen would be as effective as a kitchen dishrag, but it would need frequent washing which these do not (I do love my vintage linen kitchen towels) but I am not convinced that it is a purer safer product. The rabbit hole can get very deep in our modern industrial world and an inexpensive product like a wash cloth would likely involve industrial processes and treatments you would not approve of.

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Well said. My source for linen dish cloths is a small Etsy maker in Lithuania. They have a rough, coarse weave and scrub quite well. However, for serious scrubbing I like those little coconut pads.

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wood is much quieter than bamboo. get end grain maple or walnut, super quiet and easy on knives. bamboo is grass thats why its loud and hard. toss it lol

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