Works better than non-stick, and keeps the pan clean enough for immediate reuse, which is really nice e.g. if you're baking multiple batches of cookies for a holiday event
Nah. Parchment paper goes into the oven, that’s another name for baking sheets. Waxed paper is used to wrap your sandwich. If you put waxed paper in the oven – well, see picture above.
FYI, some baking paper contains PFAS, the group of chemicals that also PTFE (aka Teflon) belongs to, which is… not good.
Been while since I bought waxed paper, is it cheaper than parchment paper? I'm assuming it must be or why wouldn't you just use parchment paper instead?
Parchment is better for heat, wax paper is better with sticky stuff. My mom uses it to roll cookie dough into cylinders. Then she can refrigerate them and unroll it cleanly to cut into discs so she doesn't have to form dough balls by hand. If you need a permanently-non-stick, moldable surface, wax paper is pretty good.
I've seen those under pizzas, but those look to be a thicker, cardboard type material. I just googled "can you put wax paper in the oven". My 2 sec google says no. I've never had a reason to, but I'm not a professional cook.