Question from Lauren Carter
Hi Debra,
I am a big fan of your site and have come here for lots of valuable information on many occasions.
I am looking for a dish rack and would prefer to find one that is plastic-free or mostly plastic-free—I have seen stainless steel ones, but they all say they are rust-resistant. I don’t want the item to rust but I am concerned about what they did to make it rust-resistant.
I also am having trouble finding a wood dish rack that is unfinished (so I can finish it myself with an organic oil) and I am concerned about bamboo because of the potential formaldehyde I have read it could contain. Do you have any suggestions that might work? Thanks so much!
Debra’s Answer
I personally use a wood rack. Mine appears to be unfinished. I think the last one I bought was from IKEA.
I don’t think there is formaldehyde in natural bamboo. There may be formaldehyde in bamboo flooring from glues and resins used, but I’m pretty sure you are not going to have formaldehyde in unfinised bamboo.
Readers, any suggestions?
Stainless steel doesn’t have to be treated to make it rust resistant. Think of stainless steel silverware.
From the web:
The chromium in stainless steel when exposed to oxygen in the atmosphere forms a thin invisible layer called chromium oxide. This invisible layer covering the entire surface gives stainless steel its ability to resist stains and rust. If this layer is damaged rust is formed on the surface at the point of that damage.
I’ve had a stainless steel draining rack for about 15 yrs and never had a problem with rust.
Debra, I was under the impression that items made from bamboo are actually made of strips of bamboo that are glued together – such as in cutting boards, kitchen spoons/spatulas, etc. Is this not the case? I’ve been unsure about those kinds of items because of concerns over formaldehyde in the glues. If they are free from formaldehyde and thus are safe, that would be great!
There are so many items made from bamboo, one cannot generalize that all of them are made by gluing together strips of bamboo. In the case of a dish drying rack…well, mine is not bamboo but it’s made from strips of solid wood, not glued together. Just look at the item and see if it’s a solid piece of wood or pieces of wood glued together.
And not all glues contain formaldehyde.
So you just need to take this on an item by item basis.