How should you dry your hands after washing them?
At home, you should always use a cloth towel. This is plenty sanitary and oh-so-much-greener than paper towels. This part's a no-brainer.
But what about a public restroom? Your two obvious options will often be paper towels or an air blower. If you get to choose, go with the air blower. Yes, it uses electricity. But it doesn't cut down trees, which then need fossil fuels to transport them to a factory, which then needs energy to turn the trees into paper towels, which then must be transported again with fossil fuels and then go into a plastic bag, which then uses fossil fuels again to transport it to a landfill, where it never biodegrades... You see?
The best idea, though, is to follow No Impact Man's recommendation: carry a small towel with you to dry your hands or wrap things with. Seriously. Consider it.
Showing posts with label paper towels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paper towels. Show all posts
26 March 2009
24 July 2008
Paper Products
Remember your green quest when you're buying paper towels, toilet paper, and tissues, too! You want to look for products that are made from recycled materials, specifically those with very high levels of post-consumer content. Also, make sure it was made with chlorine-free processing.
We mostly use the Green Wise line from Publix. You can also choose 365 brand, which is found at Whole Foods and Wild Oats. We even got some recycled toilet paper from Walmart (don't ask me what I was doing there in the first place), which was a "green" White Cloud.
Other brands you can check out:
-April soft, Fiesta, Cascades, Pert, Marcal, Sofpac, Fluff Out, Hankies (all can be found at your local grocery stores)
-CVS brand toilet paper (at CVS pharmacies, naturally)
-Eart First, Earth Friendly Products, Green Forest, Natural Value, Seventh Generation, Green Forest (found at various natural markets, some at Paradise Health and Nutrition)
We mostly use the Green Wise line from Publix. You can also choose 365 brand, which is found at Whole Foods and Wild Oats. We even got some recycled toilet paper from Walmart (don't ask me what I was doing there in the first place), which was a "green" White Cloud.
Other brands you can check out:
-April soft, Fiesta, Cascades, Pert, Marcal, Sofpac, Fluff Out, Hankies (all can be found at your local grocery stores)
-CVS brand toilet paper (at CVS pharmacies, naturally)
-Eart First, Earth Friendly Products, Green Forest, Natural Value, Seventh Generation, Green Forest (found at various natural markets, some at Paradise Health and Nutrition)
22 July 2008
Replacing Paper Towels
With nearly zero effort, you can phase paper towels out of your home almost entirely.
At our home, we use rags and cloths for most of our daily needs. I had an old shirt with stains on it that I cut into eight good-sized squares (or rectangles or maybe "blobs" is a better way to put my cutting skills). We use these rags to wipe up spills, clean mirrors and windows (which actually leaves your mirrors and windows much less streaky than paper towels), dust (when the rags are slightly moistened), clean our counters and glass-topped stove, etc.
We got 12 natural linen napkins for our wedding and use them a lot in our daily lives. Of course, we use them with meals. Most of the time, our napkin will last each of us for the better part of a week. If you have children, you may need to change the meal napkins more often. We also use our cloth napkins to wipe up glass condensation or water spills around the sink. They are also perfect for covering dishes in the microwave. When we bring our lunches to work, we bring a napkin with us, which is also a useful way to keep your silverware together in your lunch bag.
We still occasionally use paper towels for the really gross stuff like cleaning our pet mouse's cage. But even with this type of use, we only use 1.5 or 2 rolls of paper towels a year.
When we've gotten all the cleaning we can out of our rags or napkins respectively, we just throw them in the wash. They hardly make a dent in the load, effectively nullifying their on-going water or carbon footprints.
So go ahead, chop up that holey, stained shirt at the bottom of your drawer and put it to use as rags. Treat yourself to some strong cloth napkins. Get them at a thrift store for an extra boost of reuse credit and divert them from a landfill.
At our home, we use rags and cloths for most of our daily needs. I had an old shirt with stains on it that I cut into eight good-sized squares (or rectangles or maybe "blobs" is a better way to put my cutting skills). We use these rags to wipe up spills, clean mirrors and windows (which actually leaves your mirrors and windows much less streaky than paper towels), dust (when the rags are slightly moistened), clean our counters and glass-topped stove, etc.
We got 12 natural linen napkins for our wedding and use them a lot in our daily lives. Of course, we use them with meals. Most of the time, our napkin will last each of us for the better part of a week. If you have children, you may need to change the meal napkins more often. We also use our cloth napkins to wipe up glass condensation or water spills around the sink. They are also perfect for covering dishes in the microwave. When we bring our lunches to work, we bring a napkin with us, which is also a useful way to keep your silverware together in your lunch bag.
We still occasionally use paper towels for the really gross stuff like cleaning our pet mouse's cage. But even with this type of use, we only use 1.5 or 2 rolls of paper towels a year.
When we've gotten all the cleaning we can out of our rags or napkins respectively, we just throw them in the wash. They hardly make a dent in the load, effectively nullifying their on-going water or carbon footprints.
So go ahead, chop up that holey, stained shirt at the bottom of your drawer and put it to use as rags. Treat yourself to some strong cloth napkins. Get them at a thrift store for an extra boost of reuse credit and divert them from a landfill.
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