A greener nonstick option
If you love the idea of nonstick but hate the thought of Teflon for health and environmental reasons, the new Ecolution line featuring a Hydrolon nonstick coating may interest you.
I'm gradually making my family more eco-friendly, one reusable bag at a time. We've switched from paper to cloth napkins, and we no longer buy paper towels at all. I'm looking for new cookware right now to replace some of my aging pieces, and I wanted to find out about eco-friendlier options. One name I came across is Ecolution, featuring Hydrolon nonstick coating.
Like Teflon, Hydrolon is a multilayer nonstick material. But here's how the two materials are different: Teflon is applied using PFOA, or pertfluorooctanoic acid, a surfactant used to make certain fluoropolymer dispersions. What now? In plainer English, "PFOA is a solvent that was required in order to manufacture heat- and chemical-resistant materials as applied to cookware. The PFOA is burned off during the firing in process," according to the Ecolution Web site.
Ecolution's Hydrolon system, on the other hand, uses a water-based application system. So when the nonstick is applied to the metal, the application solvent that evaporates is water, which means fewer emissions make their way into the air we breathe.
The company currently offers five dishwasher-safe cookware product lines all made from heavy aluminum to transfer heat evenly and with comfortable silicone handles that stay cool to the touch. Find them online or in bog-box retailers across the country.