The Paper Towel-less Challenge

[Missy Willis]

Who doesn't appreciate the convenience of the paper towel? Rip one off, wipe up a spill, a face, dry hands you are always washing, use as a 'plate' to serve sandwiches, and heck they are even "microwaveable". Ok, that one I added just for comedy sake, because haven't paper towels always been microwaveable? Ahhh, the ingenuity of marketing. If you have a list of luxuries, paper towels should be on that list. Why? Because they are unnecessary, expensive, and impact our environment in a big, big way. Here's a list of how the creation and use of paper towels impacts our planet and of course, us:

Deforestation- paper towels are made from trees

Pollution of air and water- Paper mills release a host of chemicals, including dioxins which harm wildlife and pollute our air

Landfills- Most paper towels end up in landfills because there is really no way to repurpose them (even the recycled ones from 7th generation) and we all know how nasty those landfills are

Costly- Families can easily spend upwards of $20 a month on paper towels. Obviously this figure is dependent on the size of your family and paper towel habits, but I know when I was a user I was grabbing for them constantly and we'd buy them in bulk, which meant about every 2-3 weeks at $15 a pop.

How we changed our ways.

We repurposed old towels and and dish rags. Cutting up into small rag size squares, we were able to get about 10 rags out of a regular sized bath towel. We have lots of old tee shirts too that we use for cleaning and dusting. I have a pile of rags under the sink in the kitchen, one pile in the hall closet, and one pile in our basement. We use our nicer dish towels to dry off our hands, which we have hanging on a hook below our sink. Think of it as drying off your hands on a hand towel like you do all the time in the bathroom. Same idea, just different location. Sure we may have an extra load of laundry now, but I'd rather reuse what we have then add more to the trash and stop supporting the consumption of such a precious resource, our trees. The transition has worked for us well and that $20 we used to spend on paper towels is now going towards our organic fruit and veggie "habit"!

Do you want to take the paper towel-less challenge? If you do, would love to hear how it's going!

[Sheila Rumble]

We're doing it! It happened by accident one weekend when I was cleaning; we ran out of paper towels and I was in too much of a hurry to go out and get more. At some point, years ago, we had bought a bunch of bar towels from Sams. They'd get stained, so I threw then in a rag box but never used them. So the day we ran out of paper towels, I pulled them out! :)

Next on my to-do list is to get rid of napkins and switch to cloth napkins...

[Leah]

We're totally paperless and it's not even a challenge! It's been over 2 years now with no paper towels.

[Missy Willis]

We have hit the 2 year mark too and although there was a tiny adjustment at first, we definitely don't miss them now. People who visit on the other hand, certainly do a double take then look all flustered in our kitchen!

[lisa]

we don't use paper towels either and have been working on decreasing our use of toilet paper as well!
one weekend about 2 months ago kathrynn and i cut up old baby cloth wipes and other thin washclothes to use them as "yoni wipes" :P
we keep the clean squares of fabric in one basket, and then put the used squares in another basket. it has really helped our use of tp go down! :)

[Francie]

It's going great! Like you said, most visitors prefer paper towels, so sometimes we have some then. Lots of visitors buy them for us! Amazingly enough, some people don't know what to do with a cloth napkin, and try to put it on the table like a place mat! No plans for cloth TP here, but with 4 females in the house, we are doing well with menstrual cups and cloth pads! ;-)

If you do use paper towels, they can be composted - they don't have to end up in the landfill.

[Missy Willis]

that's funny about the cloth napkin as placemat! I've had visitors not use theirs and tell me, 'you can put this back up, I didn't use it.'

Thanks for making the point about composting the paper towels. They can be, but if they are too gooped up with meat and dairy products, you have to be careful.

[Yvonne LV]

We've been paper towel-free for 4 years? now. My husband still reaches for them and will try to find tissues (next on my list to get free from!) instead of using a flat diaper or small towels. Sadly, he doesn't want to use cloth wipes although the rest of the family uses them. Still, that's a small change.

[Francie]

What do you mean by being careful with meat and dairy on your paper towels? So they don't end up in the compost? They will break down just fine - I think some people say not to put meat in the compost so you don't get dogs digging through it, or a bad smell. We don't have a problem with it.

[Sarah Cortes]

Although attracting animals is one concern to putting animal products in the compost, I *think* another is the bacterias that animal products produce. It becomes more important than without animal products to make sure your compost reaches a proper high temp, as is with adding fresh manure. Improperly composted/heated manure is one suspicion to how the spinach e.coli contamination happened. I started putting some chicken bones in my compost this year. I burry them and put the lid on so animals dont get them. I haven't 'turned' the compost yet and found out the status of the bones. I look forward to seeing their state of decomposition.
I also compost anything that would normally be recyclable but can't because it's 'foody' . Like pizza box bottoms. I shred and add to the pile. Recycle the lid.

[Missy Willis]

Oh, that's a great idea with the pizza boxes!!