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Comment by sakawa | Hacker News Reader

> “Personally, I avoid heating food in any plastic with an automatic default to glassware.” Beyond never microwaving food in plastic, Vandenberg hopes people simply stop using it. She says, “The market will provide us with alternatives if we just don’t buy plastic.”

I find really astonishing how the article demonizes plastic and ends recommending glassware use, placing a product referral that have PLASTIC lids. Shouldn't we stop using it?

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In the wild, most of the glass food storage containers that I see have silicone lids, not plastic lids.

In any case, the problem here is when food comes into contact with plastic, which is not happening regularly with lids unless you store your food upside-down.

All my Pyrex lids are plastic. I'm away from home at the moment and can't check, but some "search engine research" suggests BPA-free #7 (the "other" category) plastic. I've seen glass lids with silicone seals, but never a fully silicone lid.

I'm not spending a lot of time microwaving those lids, though.

From the Wikipedia article: "Silicone compounds are pervasive in the environment. Particular silicone compounds, cyclic siloxanes D4 and D5, are air and water pollutants and have negative health effects on test animals. They are used in various personal care products. The European Chemicals Agency found that "D4 is a persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) substance and D5 is a very persistent, very bioaccumulative..." So maybe silicones aren't great either

unless you have proof that the silicone in your drinking container leaches into your drink, then I'm unsure what you're saying has any relevance.

Well since we were talking about replacing plastic lids with silicone it seems relevant.

> In the wild, most of the glass food storage containers that I see have silicone lids, not plastic lids.

A quick survey of "glass containers" on amazon and walmart does not corroborate this claim.

You should not be putting the food in microwave with lids, plastic or silicone. Glassware with those lids are fine for storage.

Plenty of things are microwaved with the lid loosened or gently placed on top. That's certainly not a general rule.

A paper or light cloth towel suffices in place of a lid in every circumstance I've run across. Barring almost ready to eat meals in plastic containers designed for microwaving (which I use exceedingly rarely), plastic never enters my microwave.

I typically put a plate on top. Wouldn't trust paper or cloth to not ignite in the microwave?! At least my gf thinks I'm crazy to put things in the microwave that contain cloth or paper at all, and I don't know that it's safe for more than a few seconds. Food that I store in the freezer in glass containers typically needs heating for at least five minutes, usually more depending on amount

I can verify that paper towels will not combust after multiple minutes in the microwave. I usually dampen a (clean) hand towel to wrap/steam tortillas (under 40 seconds) and have never had an issue with that either.

I'm not sure that a dry cloth has enough microwave cross section (for lack of the proper term) to heat significantly, and a damp cloth therefore wouldn't go above boiling point. I'll experiment in my cheap office microwave.

Why do you think a paper towel would ignite? This has never been an issue for me. I use a paper towel which often times I can use for my hands or mouth after eating.

I'm doing it as well because I though it would be fine (I was mostly wary of BPA leaking from the plastic to my food so it didn't seem too big of a problem to microwave it), but that's a habit that you can change if you know about the risk. (And manufacturers should be mandated to engrave a warning in the lid “do not microwave” so that people are &actually made aware of it).

Ironically I always put the lid in for protection so food doesn't explode and stain the oven. Guess that was a bad idea.

I don't think using a lid is a bad idea, like a plate or so, but maybe not the plastic you were trying to avoid in the first place!

for that, use an external/separate cover purpose built for this purpose

The lid is not in (much) contact with the food, so there's no leeching, plus you can remove it when microwaving.

That's why I'm surprised there isn't more of a push for Corningware. Have we all forgotten? Porcelain containers with glass lids, everyone in the 80s has them. They last forever unless you manage to shatter them.

Mechanicisms matter. The article talked about plastic HEATING allowing it to leach into food that it’s TOUCHING. If you’re lids are not heating or touching food, maybe it’s fine?

Counter example could be condensation on lid heating,leaching, then dripping on food.

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