Trader Joe's Waxed Cotton Food Wraps

Feel a twinge of guilt every time you use some Saran Wrap to cover your leftovers? Well, here's one alternative, new from Trader Joe's.

They're like dish cloths that have been massively starched--thickened and stiff. So much so, in fact, that they're difficult to unfold and put in place. But it's not starch; it's wax.

Here's the largest one in use over some leftover brownies in an 8" x 8" glass baking dish:

I could and should have used the medium-sized one, but I didn't notice the dimensions on the wrapper until it was too late, and I guessed wrong as to which one would fit best. Still, you can see that the cloth does mold around the edges of the dish.

But it takes work. It took me about three minutes of stretching and shaping the waxed cloth to get it to adhere this well. The wax takes that time to respond to the heat of your hands in order to conform to the contours it's meant to cover. And it's still not airtight. In this case it doesn't really need to be, and my brownies were adequately prevented from drying out for the four days it took me to finish them off. But if, e.g., you had an ant problem and needed to keep all food items securely covered, this would not do; there's plenty of small gaps through which air and ants can move. With clingy plastic wrap, you can eliminate such openings in just a few seconds.

The directions on the back of the wrapper say that these can be hand-washed and re-used. I have not tried that yet. And frankly, I probably won't. Maybe it says something terrible about me as a person, but spending three minutes molding a stiff, heavy, waxed cloth over leftovers in order to prevent adding a couple of grams of plastic to a landfill just doesn't feel like a good use of my time.


Will I buy it again? 

No. In fact, I'm pretty likely to take these back for a refund. They're expensive, and I can't imagine continuing to use them, when I have alternatives. Plastic wrap and aluminum foil both work better and faster, for very little money. I use a lot of plastic containers; the cheap ones that are called "disposable" can actually be used many, many times before they wear out. (I bought my current ones five years ago, and have used them dozens of times each.) I also often just leave leftovers in the Corelle bowls and cover the bowls with a matching plate for the refrigerator, creating zero waste, and at zero cost. I think all of these options are better than waxed cloth, at least for my personal needs and circumstances.