Reuse Aluminum Foil With A Genius Cleaning Tip

If you're at home, you're probably sitting several yards away from a roll of aluminum foil right now. It's so commonly used and freely available that we've come to view it as a convenience that's easier to toss away than recycle. However, keeping it out of landfills is definitely better for the earth, and it turns out we'll get more bang for our buck if we clean and reuse it. A genius way to clean aluminum foil that has been through the trenches is to run it through a dishwashing cycle.

After you've cleaned your pieces of foil many times and they are beyond being used again, you can definitely recycle aluminum foil. However, you cannot do so if there are any food particles left on it, as only food-free clean foil is acceptable. Otherwise, the haul could be considered contaminated and then, unfortunately, would go to a landfill. When your foil gets too worn to use, run it through the dishwasher one last time, then throw it into the recycling bin so that it can get turned into cans or other aluminum products. Before you recycle it, however, learn how to easily clean it so you can use it over and over again.

As soon as you have a piece that needs to get refreshed, prep your foil. This is as simple as completely unfolding the foil, spreading out the wrinkles, and placing the used side down on the top rack of your dishwasher. To keep it from flying around inside the washer and tearing, you could add two or three large metal spoons on top to secure it. Run the machine as usual with all your dishes and soap, and then you'll have cleansed foil to reuse over again.

The reason this works so well is that aluminum foil is a durable, though flexible, metal. That means that you can clean your foil in the dishwasher a number of times and reuse it quite often. While it will continue to work, depending on what you're using it for, you may find that some food just won't come off. For instance, if you use foil in the toaster oven to reheat pizza and some mozzarella drips onto it, it'll probably be baked in. When you start to see spots like that, carefully cut or tear those pieces of the sheet out. Once you've got clean foil with holes in it, you can't really use it to cover a plate of food in the fridge or wrap a sandwich. However, it's still good for tasks like sharpening scissors, lining the fireplace to catch embers, removing rust from metal, or scrubbing pots and pans.