When you set your table for dinner, you have the opportunity to help save Planet Earth by making one simple change.
How? Use cloth napkins.
On average, each American uses a staggering 2,200 paper napkins a year, none of them recycled. Why not reduce waste (and deforestation) by choosing cloth instead?
Recycla’s family uses cloth napkins with dinner almost every night. Recycla has collected a variety of napkins over the years, and her daughters like to choose which napkins they use each evening. Not surprisingly, the girls skew toward florals.
If you don’t have any cloth napkins, there are lots of inexpensive ways to acquire them:
- Scout out thrift shops and other second-hand stores.
- For fancier meals, check out local antique stores for old linen napkins.
- Does your grandmother have any old napkins she’d like to share?
- Make your own: If you have any fraying shirts, such as oxford cloth men’s shirts, cut out squares and you’re ready to roll. Hemming the edges is optional.
Some people would argue that using cloth napkins uses resources too — the napkins have to be washed. True, but the overall use of resources is less and the napkins don’t add much bulk to one’s laundry. And, of course, the napkins don’t have to washed after each use. And, no, Recycla does not iron her cloth napkins.
Recycla must confess that her family only uses cloth napkins during dinner but not during other meals. Yes, Recycla knows her family should use cloth all the time, but she’s not perfect and she’s trying to make easy changes where possible. When using paper, the family uses recycled unbleached napkins bought at the organic grocery store. These napkins aren’t pretty, but that’s not the point. By using napkins made from recycled paper, Recycla feels slightly better about her wastefulness. And, when the family is finished with them, they don’t trash them — instead, they toss them in the compost bin.
If the idea of switching from paper to cloth seems a bit much, ease into it. Use cloth napkins for one meal per week, such as Sunday dinner. Doing so helps cut back a little on waste and we all know that every little bit counts.
I cannot believe anyone would use napkins on a regular basis. That is unheard of in Australia. I am pretty sure most people I know just wipe their mouths on their sleeves. If they are a little classier than that, they would have one wet cloth in the middle of the table for everyone to share, and napkins are something that come out on occasions like christmas!
So true! We don’t “use” napkins, but I keep a basket on the table for when people need them. Cloth does class it up–and the laundry is so insignificant compared to the waste of paper.
I find that my napkins just go in the wash with a regular load. Using cloth doesn’t add to our water use. I used to compost my paper napkins, but using cloth is so much better – and so much more frugal, too.
I love making my own out of vintage fabric
I’ve been using cloth napkins for years. I hate the way paper feels, plus cloth is more elegant. We use them over and over, then wash.
My husband’s environmental activist parents, however, use paper.
PS I will never, however, give up my paper kotex. That whole “use a rag and wash it” idea? No. We are civilized.