Once you start really thinking about it, paper products seem like an easy place to make environmental change. To get paper towels to you, trees are grown and cut down and transported. Manufacturing plants are using water and energy to turn the wood into pulp, which may be then transported again to make the paper towels. Products like bleach and sometimes dyes are transported, added, and sometimes leaked into waterways. Separately, the plastic packaging is being made, of course, from oil and other products and transported. And, the paper towel tubes are going through their own manufacturing and transportation. The combined product is then transported to a supplier, to a store, to your home, often using big, polluting trucks. Then the paper towel is used for about 5 seconds before it is thrown into the trash! Then, of course, in a paper towel’s afterlife, there are garbage trucks, landfills, and so on.

REDUCE
So, how can we reduce our use of paper towels?

My favorite option is cloth. You have be a little careful with this. Buying a huge amount of new cotton cloth isn’t necessarily doing the best things for our environment. Cotton is a crop that uses a lot of pesticides, water waste, etc. If you’re looking to use cloth wipes, try buying from yard sales or second-hand shops. Better yet, find some old, but clean clothes or sheets that aren’t in a condition to be donated, and cut them up for towels. Or, look for fabrics like organic cotton, linen, hemp, bamboo.  We’ve also cut up old dish towels that have passed their prime.

Once you’ve got your cloth, decide on a system that feels right for you. Paper towels are used in so many different ways.

Cleaning
In the past, we’ve used linen cleaning cloths as our counter cleaners. Currently, we are loving using and reusing bamboo “paper towels.”  They’ve lasted for a looong time and have held up very well to the washing machine and dryer.

For cleaning floors or grimier things, we have a basket of cut-up fabrics from clothes and sheets that were no longer appropriate for donation. We have bins for our clean cloths and a bin for our dirty ones. It takes a bit of effort to set up a system, but once you’ve got it going, it’s so worth it.

The cloth is better for the environment, cheaper, and way more effective and absorbent. Be sure if you’re using cloth, to wash and dry responsibly. Figure out a system so you know which cloths you feel comfortable combining in the wash. Washing separate small loads of cloths by themselves really isn’t doing much to help the environment. Consider hanging out to dry or watch for a future post on dryers for tips there.

Napkins
If you’re using paper towels as napkins, you can also consider cloth. (Napkin post)

Drying hands
Consider having a cloth towel for drying your hands at home. At a public restroom, shake out your hands before grabbing a paper towel to reduce how many you grab. Better yet, use a hand dryer. For truly committed environmentalists…you could carry a cloth towel that hooks to your bag and avoid the paper towel use or energy use in the public restroom.

Where else?
Start noticing where else you’re using paper towels and if they can be replaced with something more environmentally sustainable. For instance, one friend brought up that she used to use a folded paper towel to rest her honey spoon on in the morning. Now she uses a small dish instead.

Not ready to part with paper towels?  but still want to reduce
Some more ways to reduce your use if you’re not ready to completely part with paper towels:

–Keep the paper towels less accessible. (If the paper towels are harder to get to, you’re less likely to use them.)
–Buy the paper towels where you can easily select smaller sizes or cut your paper towels in half.

REUSE?
Can you reuse paper towels? Well, it depends. If you’ve just used a paper towel to wipe water from clean hands or catch some bread crumbs, you can probably let it dry or shake it out, and give it another use for wiping up a dirty floor board. But, hopefully, after reading this, you’re considering not really using paper towels for simple things like drying hands or catching crumbs… Right?

RECYCLE?
Are paper towels recyclable? Well, the answer I keep reading is, no. Most of the fibers in paper towels are too short to make it through the recycling process. And paper towels that are oily or grimy really shouldn’t be mixed into recycling anyway. So, please don’t think you’re doing your part by throwing paper towels into the recycling. Check first. Likely, it’s contaminating other recycling and making people’s jobs harder at the recycling plant.
BUT…if your paper towels are unbleached and not too oily or contaminated, it’s very likely you could add them to your compost pile. Look into it and see if that option works for you!

So, there’s obviously more to paper towels than just the towels themselves. The plastic wrap can be added any place plastic bags are accepted. And the core paper towel tubes should be recycled as well. But, I will be covering these two items in greater detail in other posts.

 

Tips for more responsible paper towels
In my opinion, cloth is a far superior option to paper towels anyway. Apart from the environmental benefits, they are cheaper and so much more effective than paper towels ever could be.  Also, you never find yourself having to run to the store because the paper towels have run out.

If you’re really not ready to part with paper towels though, or you’d like some on hand for occasional uses…

–Try bamboo “paper” towels.  The price may seem surprising at first, but bamboo towels are usually sturdy enough to be washed in the washing machine and reused many, many times. (I might be embarrassed to tell you how long we’ve been reusing ours…)  Bamboo is also a plant that can easily regrow, as opposed to trees.  These towels are also far more effective and absorbent than paper towels.

–Look for paper towels made from 100% recycled content. If you can’t find that, look for the highest percentage of recycled content.

–Try to find unbleached paper towels. I think we’ve let corporate America fool us with the whole bleach thing. Bleach is horrible for our environment and bad for our health. Brown paper towels are healthier for everyone. If you can’t find unbleached, look for then process chlorine free then elemental chlorine free

–Avoid paper towels with designs. These are made with dyes, which, again, are bad for our environment and our health. If you’re itching for “cute” paper towels, find or make some cute cloth towels instead.

 

Thank you so much for being here! Our actions can and will make a difference.

 

CLOTH NAPKINS VIDEO

SEWING CLOTH NAPKINS VIDEO

Why reduce our paper napkins? Like any product, disposable napkins go through quite a journey to get to us, including trees cut down, transported, turned into pulp, possibly bleached or dyed, transported to be packaged and put in warehouses, transported to our stores or homes. All of this takes energy, oil, causes pollution in our air and water. This is to say nothing of the garbage transportation and afterlife of these paper napkins. So how can we reduce our use of paper napkins?

REDUCE

My favorite way to reduce my use of paper napkins is to use cloth napkins instead. I find them to be superior in so many ways. They’re softer, they’re cheaper in the long run, they are far more absorbent, and they’re better for the environment*. (Cotton is an extremely wasteful crop, so try using eco-friendly fabrics or reusing fabric from other items.)  Cloth napkins are easy to make, and they are a great project for reusing fabric pieces. If you want finished edges, you can stitch around the edges, a project that, while a bit tedious if you’re making a lot at once, is easy enough for a novice sewer. Some people might want matching napkins, but I find that using what fabric is on hand is easier and creates a fun assortment to choose from. You can also use napkin rings to keep track of family member’s napkins if they aren’t too soiled, so they can be reused at another meal.

This cloth napkin idea can definitely be carried out beyond the home as well for those who are feeling truly dedicated. A small “clean” cloth bag and “used” cloth bag for cloth napkins can be tucked into a bag or purse for outings.

If you have young kids and you’re anything like me, you may turn away from any food establishment that uses cloth napkins, a quick indication that kids may not be welcome, but I hope to see that shift. I’ve seen lots of casual, smaller, independent food places use fun cloth napkins at their tables, and it’s so nice to see businesses taking charge and reducing their waste. These cloth napkins are also far more useful than the paper ones, which I find people have to sometimes grab three or four of during a meal.

Another simple way to reduce paper napkin waste is to just be conscious of how many you are taking and be sure you are using them wisely. Think about what the napkins have gone through to get to you and appreciate them.

REUSE

Again, reusing a paper product like this seems like a weird thing to address. But, as with the tissue post, for instance, if you find yourself with napkins that for some reason aren’t usable for their intended purpose or aren’t that soiled, you can use these to wipe up oily or grease-y messes. I know we always have certain foods that are tough to wash off of dishes, things like butter or oils. So, it can be helpful to keep a stash of only slightly-used paper products on hand to reuse for wiping up things like this, so they can be given a second life.

If a cloth napkin becomes too used or stained for continued use, see if you can use any bits of it for another scrap sewing project or keep it on hand as a cleaning cloth instead.

RECYCLE?

Just as with some of the other disposable paper products I’ve covered, I find that recycling paper napkins doesn’t seem to be a possibility many places. If your napkins aren’t bleached or dyed, you may be able to add these to a compost pile, especially if they aren’t grease-y.

The plastic wrap that surrounds a package of store-bought napkins may be able to go into a grocery bag recycling bin at a store.

Cloth napkins that can no longer be used as cleaning cloths or scraps, can be recycled with textile recycling.

ENDING THOUGHTS

The great thing about starting to reduce disposable paper products and replacing them with cloth is that it all starts to fit together like a puzzle. Once you start using cloth instead of paper towels or napkins or tissues, it becomes part of your daily life. You never have to run out and buy these products, because they are always on hand. You can group your cloth laundry in a way that makes sense for your family and uses the washing machine consciously.

Cloth napkins are such a fun choice to make. Not only are the colorful or designed napkins a great addition to your table, but these napkins are also far more effective than the disposable ones. This is a great way you can start to make big change.

Thank you for reading. Your actions can and will make a difference!

It feels weird talking about reducing pots for plants! Wonderful, glorious, green plants.  But it’s always just struck me as weird how these plants are purchased, transported home, repotted, and then have left this plastic pot waste behind. How can we do this differently? Also, I know the tempting feeling to acquire more and more plants. And if you really have the time and knowledge to care for them, that’s great. But, if you’re a newbie or you often get distracted at poor plants’ expense, maybe hold back from purchasing more than you can care for. Just a thought…. That being said, I’ve become an absolute sucker for houseplants, so I get it.  Lately, I’ve been experimenting with propagating plants, which is loads of fun and another way to have more plants without worrying about these little pots.

REDUCE

I think plants are great, but it seems that even in the most down-home, local, organic plant place, you’re dealing with these darned plastic pots. So, a lot of what I’m going to say about reducing will just tie in with reusing in the next section. But, what I will say here is this little tangent: Not all plants are created equal. Think about where you’re buying your plants from and if that’s the kind of place you’d like to support. What kind of soil have they used? What kind of growth hormones have they used? See if you can locate a local seller who uses good practices and really loves what they’re doing. Often times, people hold “plant sales” at their homes in the spring, just as one might hold a yard sale. Propagating your own plants ( as mentioned above) is another great way to reduce the waste of these plastic pots.

REUSE

A lot of ideas I’ve seen on reusing these plastic planting pots in new ways are probably things I wouldn’t actually do… The ideas that would be the most likely involve the multi-sectioned pots. After cleaning them out, they could be used to sort screws or nails or they could be used to teach a child color sorting or money sorting. I also heard some people who use these pots as a sort of filler in very large pots to take up some soil space.

One of my favorite ideas is going back to where you bought the plant, especially if it was a local grower, and seeing if they can reuse them for a new plant. Better yet, though, reuse the plastic pots to help you as you get new cuttings started. I recently asked ReStore if they’d take a donation of plastic planting pots, and they accepted a stack of them. You can also offer the pots up on a site like Freecycle to see if anyone is interested. Maybe try calling around to some local nurseries too. If you happen to work with kids at a school or community setting, it would be super awesome to teach them about propagating plants and then use it as a fundraiser once the plants have grown. This would be an instance where you could be reusing plastic pots during your growing and selling.

RECYCLE?

You’d have to check with your local recycling center or curbside recycling to see if these are recyclable in your area. Don’t be shy; you can do it. Just remember, throwing the plastic pots into a recycling bin without checking first does not mean you’ve done your environmental part. In fact, it could just mean creating more work for the recycling center. Sometimes, large home improvement-type stores will have their own plastic pot recycling option too, so keep your eyes open for that as an option as well.

ENDING THOUGHTS

Those plastic pots seem to be everywhere, especially in planting season. Maybe we’ll find a better way of doing this soon. In the meantime, my suggestions are to be smart about the plants you buy and from where, offer the pots to growers who might be able to use them, or use them for your own growing and giving away. And lastly, check with local recycling to see if that’s an option.

Thank you for being here! Your actions can and will make a difference.

It seems that with so much online, catalogs would be less popular, but I still see so many. Sometimes the catalogs are fairly unassuming, but sometimes they are monster catalogs. Either way, if it’s not a wanted catalog, see what you can do to stop it from coming to your mailbox. If it’s a catalog you genuinely like getting, that’s great. Maybe consider if you could look at the products online instead though. But, quite often I see catalogs arrive at someone’s home or business and go straight to the recycling, or worse, the trash.  At one of my jobs, I saw so many catalogs go into the recycling, that I finally asked if I could just cancel them. It was way easier than I thought it might be, and it reduced the amount of incoming stuff to deal with.

REDUCE

The best way to reduce your number of unwanted catalogs is to take the time when ordering something to make sure you’re not automatically signed up to be on a mailing list. There’s usually a check box somewhere along the process where you can “opt out” before anything is even sent. 

But, if you do end up receiving catalogs in the mail, either in your name or from a former house or business owner, it’s fairly easy to cancel.

There’s usually a phone number on the back of a catalog. They’ll ask for your name or a code on the catalog. I’ve called and cancelled a good number of catalogs in recent years, and I would say with 95% of companies, it’s super easy and they really don’t care why you’re unsubscribing. There are some companies that are tough to get a hold of or who are slightly weird about it, but I would say that’s definitely the exception. Often times, you can also just go to the company’s website to unsubscribe. You will usually be told that you will still receive one or two more catalogs since everything is preprinted. I think the standard answer is to give it 6-8 weeks to process. Because I was dealing with canceling so many catalogs at one point, I made a list of catalog names and the date I called, just to make sure everything stopped after that time period and to have a record of which ones I had already called.

REUSE 

There are so many ideas for reusing catalogs.  An online search will provide an abundance of inspiration.  Above are some videos I’ve made that can be used for any number of paper products – magazines, catalogs, wrapping paper, etc. Paper products can be reused for collaging, crafting, making homemade envelopes, shredded gift wrap filler, gift bows or wrap, and so much more. If you’ve cancelled all your catalogs and magazines but still want to upcycle or craft with some, don’t worry. You can always ask friends or Freecycle. 

RECYCLE? 

Catalogs CAN be recycled. There was a time awhile ago that they couldn’t, but that’s no longer the case. My only hesitation with the awesomeness that they can be recycled, is that some people get careless then about reducing and reusing. Remember, to get the catalog TO you, trees are cut down, dyes are made, the catalog is manufactured and transported, which means pollution and water usage. And then the recycling itself, while is better than the trash, also involves its own transportation and manufacturing. 

ENDING THOUGHTS 

Reducing unwanted catalogs is easy. Spend the time you might be zoning out on your device or waiting on someone and cancel those catalogs! You’ll feel an enormous weight lifted for a relatively simple process. Not only are you doing your part for our environment, it’s also just really nice not to have to see those unwanted catalogs in your mail every month. 

Thank you for being here. Your actions can and will make a difference!