We’re conscious about wasting water, and do everything we can to conserve. We’ve been using rags to clean & wash them when needed. I’m wondering if it would be more beneficial to use recycled paper towels thereby reducing water consumption? Any thoughts?
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12 comments to In Trying To Implement A Green Lifestyle, Is It Better To Use Recycled Paper Towels, Or Washable Rags? |
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I think either is good. You’re doing your part which is better then most
i like greybeads’ answer, and also to add to that, in green living in general it usually safe to go with the reuseable or recyclable option. In this cause i would say get the rags because they last much longer and water is more renewable than trees.
well reusables is your your friend so stick with the rags. if your concerned about water usage, wash your rags into one huge load saving water,energy, money and waste from to the landfill. also recycled paper towels is good but it does take electricity, chemicals, gasoline, and WATER as well so it would be a good idea using rags afterall.
Jeesh. Yours is a values question – better to who or what? E.g.: Folks laboring in the paper mill will, uh, think one thing, versus the cotton picker might see it another way. My wife and I have debated this one, though. We use both – there are four of us in the family, so we keep four different colored cloth napkins neatly rolled in a bowl conveniently at the center of our table and used for most meals. We wash these only as needed – figuring re-use without washing by the same party for days sometimes is a decent low impact compromise. I do about 90% of the house cleaning, so in the kitchen, I use cloth for much of the counter and cabinet face wiping, but grap paper when I am cleaning up stainable & stinky stuff like coffee spills and milk. Most of the paper gets used twice – and most of it then goes into our worm bin where the wet paper towel gets “consumed” by our slave companion animals, aka red wigglers and other biota. We use that compost then on houseplants or the herb garden. I wash about 15 fabric cloths per week. When these are finally too tattered for day to day, they graduate to my shop as paint rags. From there – depending what chemistry is on them – they either get landfill trashed or get washed or go to the composter. Our washing machine is an efficient front loader – and I use hot water settings liberally in summer because we have a rooftop solar heater system. I try top use the solar dryer a lot, too (an umbrella clothesl line thing we bought ten years ago), but its been raining so much this summer I have been defaulting to the gas dryer. we evaluated buying “green” cotton-but golly no. Too expensive. At least for rags. Pillows and sheets? Another story.
Bottom line – for us at least – is we learn a bit about where stuff comes from and where it goes, then think about convenience and cost effectiveness as well as the likely amount of embedded energy, then decide. All this looks a bit anal now that I am putting it in writing – but oh, well. Its all old habits now after so many years.
Finally, I think that word “better” should be poised in context only. What we do is better for us. And I suppose the kids, and maybe “the planet.” And the worms, too – at least I have never heard them complain.
I personally use rags and then just throw them in with a dark load of laundry. I use cloth napkins or dishtowels in place of napkins. They are small enough that they can go in with a regular load that you were going to wash anyway. Also, if you use sponges you can sanitize them by throwing them in your dishwasher when you run a load.
Kim at: http://www.peaceful-organic-planet.com
You are better off using rags because:
You didn’t have to use gasoline to drive to the store to buy them.
A mill didn’t have to produce the paper towels (electricity, oil, co2 byproducts). Or transport the towels (diesel fuel, co2).
If you run your laundry with full loads the impact of water and soap used to clean the rags will be negligible.
.
Your rags won’t take up additional space in landfills
And you SAVE MONEY! How easy was that?
We always use washable rags. We haven’t bought any paper towels in over a year and haven’t really missed them. Reusing is way more beneficial and energy efficient than recycling. You already have to do other laundry, so you just put your rags (and linen napkins) into the wash with your other stuff. They don’t take up much space so any water and energy consumption to wash is negligible. It’s not even very much effort. After installing compact flourescent light bulbs, this is just about the easiest green lifestyle change we have tried. The rags also do a far better job of cleaning.
first paper is made from pine trees, this is a planted crop so dont worry there are plenty of pine trees . you may not know this but the timber companies plant on average 6 thees to every one they cut .its to there best interest to make sure that they manage there crops .after all its there way to make the money. but rags are good to
Cloth is always preferable to disposable.
You never wash a single cloth by itself ~ it always goes in a load with other things so the water & energy consumption is zero.
Aside from that ~ rags come from pre-existing clothes with no production costs involved. Paper towels are having to be produced ~ even if it is from recycled paper ~ and can not be rinsed out and used again. One rag can last a year or better while in the same period, you may go through dozens of rolls of paper.
If you are concerned about the water ~ you can simply hang your wet rags on the line and use them again after they dry. I use designated rags for each of my daily tasks which helps keep down the amount of laundering they need plus extends their life.
Use washable rags because u’ll throw paper towels after one us and they are made of trees!
Using & washing cloth towels is better. Water is used to wash, goes down the drain, cleaned & sanitized, out to the ocean and then becomes rain again. It is never really wasted. Now, the paper towels, even if they are recycled paper, they still end up in the land fill, and stay there.
you have already lost, with the electricity you consumed typing that question