A while back the Green Daily tossed out the Paper Towel Challenge and a couple of the Eco Women bellied up to the towel bar to try their hand at it. Here is Enviro-Girl’s story:
My name is Enviro-Girl and I use paper towels. I know it’s wrong, wasteful and lazy. I know I should use cloth towels for cleaning up spills and mopping up bacon grease (eating meat being another wasteful eco-sin I confess to). So when I read about the Paper Towel Challenge, I decided to TRY.
I’ve never had a lot of success quitting anything cold turkey, but even a reduction is a step in the right direction. I put the paper towel roll inconveniently beneath the sink and hung a regular towel on the rack beside the sink. A month passed and I found myself digging out the paper towel roll exactly ONCE–to clean some crud out of my dishwasher–nasty icky crud that I did NOT want running through my washing machine later. Taking two towels off the roll, I scraped out the mess and threw it in the trash.
That same month Mr. D used about 8-10 towels for mopping up bacon grease when making breakfast. Less than a dozen paper towels.
Most weeks we’re down to two towels per week–for the bacon grease. Mr. D reaches for whatever’s handy by the sink (he’s even lazier than me) and has complained a little about the missing roll of towels, but he knows where it is and has decided it’s too much work to bend down to get it. The children can’t reach the by the sink so are already in the habit of pulling towels and washcloths out of the drawer for their needs. And me? I’m running a fuller load of rags when I do laundry because we’re using more rags and less paper towels.
No, we didn’t quit cold turkey, but we definitely reduced. We went from about a roll every week and a half (Mr. D would use two paper towels to make a sandwich–don’t ask why or how, the guy had a real problem with them) to one roll every two months–or better. And I met Mr. D’s complaint with the argument that always wins the most points in our house: using less paper towels means spending less money. Even the laziest husband can’t argue against that!
Take the Paper Towel Challenge–it doesn’t have to be “all or nothing.” You can reduce your use and STILL help the planet AND help your wallet.
That’s where we are now with our paper towel use — one or two a week. I can live with that.
When I found out how many paper towels an average family uses, I knew our family surely doesn’t go through that many. To prove my point and to feel good about our papertowel consumption, I decided to watch for a week my family of 4, two teenage boys and their father and me.To my horror, I watched countless times them reaching for not one but 4-6 paper towels to clean up a small spill then threw it away. By the third day, I couldn’t take it any longer. I announced we were not going to use paper towels any longer. Boy, you thought I took away candy! We quit cold turkey. The next day we went to BJ’s bought microfiber towels and I went on the internet and bought the chamois cloths and that is what we use today. Yes, there was some adjusting and more labor involved rinsing the rags out etc…
I do have buy paper towels when guests come the eco-friendly, recycled type of course my guests are a little harder to convert, but the roll goes hidden once the guest leaves.
For fried things, we use newspaper or paper bags.
It worked for my family. They hardly miss them and It feels great knowing I’m making a difference.
I use paper towels to dry my fish before frying, or to soak the fat from pan-fried meat. I can not think of any other reasonable replacement. The cloth would require washing, washing consumes a lot of water, power and powder and pollutes the rivers. I can not give you a good answer, but I can not imagine storing (the smell!) and then washing fish-soaked washcloth.
The solution is using eco non-bleached paper towels, if the producer can guarantee the sanitary condition (bleaching of paper pulp disinfects it, so there is a good reason to do this).
I’ve reduced my paper towel usage too. I only use it to clean up grease and to clean around the toilet. I like the rolls that are divided into smaller sheets so I can use as little as needed.
A challenge I want to try is using handkerchiefs and fabric napkins instead of tissues and paper napkins. Those are my biggest paper wasters!
I haven’t used paper towels for many many years! either do my sons whom live with me. I have two dish towels on my stove that we wash regularly, but we haven’t bought paper towels for the past 6-7yrs now. Plus we use sponges to do the rest of the cleaning, other things we use are small towels that we wash regularly for cleaning purposes. I would say I have a very clean home.
Wow, I had no idea paper towels were even an issue..
I do have them in my kitchen, but rarely use them, just when greasy food is involved, or something spilled to the floor and I don’t want to clean with the usual mop.
I’m glad you took the challenge and embraced it. We don’t know where or how we are misusing resources.
Enhorabuena!
At first, I was a little shocked since I thought you were trying to quit using toilet paper XD
Love microfiber cloths instead, haven’t used paper towels in a decade. Bacon grease? Tilt and drain in hot pan or cook in oven on broiler pan.
Hmmm…seems you aren’t really figuring-in the cost (or megative impact) of water + electricity to run your washing machine, all the detergents plus their effluent, dryer-if you use it, etc., etc… Not to mention the energy require to make fabric from which your cloths sprung (and probably the ocean transportation to get them near you). Good to make some changes, but also important to look at the WHOLE picture. You may be being more green, but this is certainly less blue!
Actually, yes I am considering the entire impact. Cotton rags — which are made from discarded t-shirts that would have otherwise been thrown away — do not add much to our laundry loads. As for the detergents, we use eco friendly ones and have also used a homemade version. Overall, the paper industry is VERY harmful to the environment, in terms of chemicals and energy used, not to mention deforestation.
Jen – thanks for that last comment – I was wondering about the overall eco-balance of using cloth over paper. I have already switched to using vinegar for my laundry detergent (rinses right out – no smell and no residue), and I suppose for rags I could pretty easily air-dry them on a line. I’m totally guilty of relying too much on my paper towels, but this post and your comment are an encouragement to make this my next greening effort. Thanks!