Breaking the Paper Towel Habit

One of the most wasteful things we spend our money on is paper towels. The typical home goes through two rolls every week (costing around $184 annually), and according to 1800recycling.org, as many as 51,000 trees per day are required to replace the number of paper towels that are discarded every day in the U.S.

Part of the reason paper towel use is so high is not just due to the number of chores that we’ve come to rely on them for, but also how we use them—spinning off a handful of sheets, for example, when a singleton would do the job. Another contributing factor to their prolific use is the prominence of the paper towel roll in the American kitchen. Paper towels are rarely hidden from view, but rather placed out in the open, within arms reach and easily accessible to countertop puddles, sticky fingers and wet hands. For many it’s more of a reflex than a thoughtful decision to reach for a paper towel to handle our kitchen messes.

The reality is, we don’t need paper towels at all. Although we’ll have a hard time giving them up entirely, replacing paper towels to a large degree isn’t difficult in the least. A collection of reusable rags, and a few other materials, can handle most—if not all—jobs frequently assigned to paper towels.

Start a rag bin.
Assembling a set of rags will take minimal time and you can do it on the cheap. Put together a set of at least a dozen rags (more if you have a large household) of different sizes, thicknesses, textures and absorbency so you’ll have a rag for any chore or accident that comes your way.

Your set could look something like this:

Lightweight terrycloth washcloths for wiping spills and general cleaning. Local thrift stores have an abundant assortment.
Cut-up, all-cotton T-shirts. Super soft, 100% cotton t-shirts are gentle on little faces and hands as well as good at blotting grease. If you don’t have any old t-shirts ready for the rag bin, pick some up at a thrift store.
Cotton diapers. These are great for draining greasy foods, buffing streaks off stainless steel and dusting.

Most of the time, rags can be rinsed, air dried and put right back into circulation. When rags are ready for laundering, rotate them into the day’s or week’s laundry. Laundered in this way, there shouldn’t ever be a need to dedicate a load of laundry just to your reusable rags.

Put a lid on it.
If you’re in the habit of covering things in the microwave with paper towels—to stop splatter—reusable silicone lids (or covers) do the job with no waste; and they are dishwasher safe.

Use the dust pan for more than just dust.
For cleaning up really nasty stuff, like vomit for example, a dust pan and a scrap of paperboard—plucked from the recycling bin and used to scoot the mess into the pan— works much better than a wad of paper towels.

Wipe and repeat.
There’s nothing unsanitary about reusing a cloth dish towel over and over as long as we use comon sense and reserve its use for drying things that are clean, such as just-washed dishes, hands or countertops. While that seems intuitive, paper towel producers love to scare the consumer into thinking disposable options are the only safe options. Poppycock.

Finally, if you must use paper towels, use a brand that is made from 100% recycled fibers and is unbleached. According to the Environmental Paper Network, making paper from 100% recycled content fiber instead of 100% virgin forest fibers reduces total energy consumption by 44%, net greenhouse gas emissions by 38%, particulate emissions by 41%, wastewater by 50% and solid waste by 49%. Unbleached towels can go into a compost bin, instead of the trash, as long as they weren’t used for anything hazardous.

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7 Comments »

Great article, you make great points and I think it’s time I personally start a rag bin. Paper towels are really easy and convenient but if you make another option just as easy and convenient, no reason not to do it. Thanks Green Matters!

Comment by Serena — April 27, 2011 @ 11:16 pm
Serena,
You’re so right. Once I had my rags assembled and at my fingertips, I just didn’t see the need for paper towels anymore. :)

Comment by admin — April 28, 2011 @ 12:12 am
I like it! I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately how I need to limit/eliminate my paper towel usage. Perfect timing! (and so easy!)

Comment by Nick — April 29, 2011 @ 11:04 pm
I use a lot of paper towels, so if I switched to rags I’d go through a lot of rags as well—creating extra laundry. Isn’t the extra detergent, energy and water required to wash rags daily worse than using p. towels? (Note: I use the recycled, unbleached p. towels.)

Comment by big4wash — May 2, 2011 @ 6:46 pm
big4wash,

Your question is a good one, but rest assured that heavy paper towel use, even if those towels are made with recycled fibers, is tougher on the environment than a liberal reusable rag habit. Producing paper towels with recycled—instead of virgin—fiber conserves trees, generally uses less total energy and water, and releases less air and water pollutants, but it’s still a substantial undertaking that is energy, water and chemical intensive—many, many more times so than residential laundering.

Daily washing of your rags, however, can and should be avoided by assembling a good supply. As mentioned in the blog post, just rotate dirty rags into other loads of laundry you have them. Washing rags in this way will use very little—if any—extra detergent, energy and water than you use for your washing chores on the whole.

Comment by admin — May 3, 2011 @ 12:30 am
Roll It Rite for paper towels stops the paper from rolling when you stop pulling, ensuring you only get as much paper as you really want. It saves money and waste. Roll it Rite is also available for toilet paper.

Comment by David Patrick — July 1, 2011 @ 4:31 pm
[...] Paper towels and our society’s gross overuse of them is a topic I have written about before. And my loyal readers know that my preferred method for avoiding paper towels is to keep a ready and robust supply of cloth towels in my kitchen to stand in for most any job a paper towel might do. My favorite towel is a reclaimed terry cloth washcloth. The thin ones, not the plush ones, are the best. I could always find used washcloths at my localValueVillageinSpokane,WA, but I moved toPortland,ORlast year and Good Will is the predominant thrift retailer here, and when it comes to those oh-so-perfect washcloths, what my belovedValueVillagehad in abundance, Good Will seems to be deliberately avoiding. I’ve never seen a one on the sales floor. Good Will obviously gets donations of old washcloths, but what they do with them, I don’t know. So as my current inventory of used washcloths ages, I had to come up with a plan “B.” I decided to try out some of the paper towel substitutes for sale on the internet. I rounded up some samples from three companies and tested their products for two weeks in my home. Here’s my review: [...]

Pingback by PRODUCT REVIEW: Reusable Towels as Paper Towel Replacements | Green Matters: Home of Green Living Expert Crissy Trask — January 10, 2013 @ 12:33 am