In Defense of the Lowly Rag

Ah, the paper towel. They are convenient, but they have become a bit of an addiction in U.S. kitchens. More than 90% of US households use paper towels, creating 3,000 tons of waste each day or 1,095,000 tons every year in our dumps. Paper towels are made from trees. Cutting down trees leads to deforestation. Deforestation not only decreases our CO2-consuming forests and animal habitats, but also lets off large amounts of CO2 when the land is burned and then is exposed soil.

What to do?
Next time your paper towels run out- don't replace them. Use your rag pile instead. Put those rags on the counter where your paper towels usually reside. Put your paper towels under your sink. This will help you change your habits associated with messes. If it is water or milk grab a rag. If it is cat vomit, maybe get out the smallest amount of paper towels necessary to clean up the gross stuff and use a rag for the second pass. Remember that rags are made to get dirty. You may need a few more crummy rags around your house. (old stained clothing) While washing rags does take some energy, if you incorporate them into your regular laundry loads it should not create a high energy burden.

Our choice: I still buy Bounty, but I buy the smart-size kind and I use rags whenever possible. This had considerably reduced our paper towel consumption. We barely used a Sam's package of 12 last year. I used to buy a pack every six weeks or so.

What do you do if you can't kick the paper towel habit? Here are some recycled paper towel options adapted from http://www.idealbite.com/ Fair warning- trying to use all recycled paper towels is pricey.

1. Look for towels that boast no less than a 40% post-consumer waste content and don’t use a whole lot of packaging.


2. Choose unbleached paper towels first, process chlorine-free (PCF) second, and elemental chlorine-free (ECF) third.


3. Seek items having the largest amount of product (higher square footage).
   Seventh Generation- 100% post-consumer recycled paper towels ($7.95/4 rolls).


4. Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value and Planet – 100% recycled (80% by consumers), PCF, and available at a store near you.

What are the benefits of using recycled paper towels instead of regular?

1. If every household in the US replaced one roll of non-recycled paper towels with a roll of 100% recycled paper towels, we would save 864,000 trees and 3.4 million cubic feet of landfill space.


2. For every ton of 100% recycled paper that is bought, about 4000kWh of energy and 7,000 gallons of water are saved. It also avoids releasing 60 lbs of pollutants into the air.


3. Roll towels combined with controlled-use dispensers save paper by 25 to 35%, and require less packaging than stand-alone rolls or folded towels.

Good luck and pull out those rags!