I like paper towels. I admit that. But my husband and I try to use as few as possible. And when we do buy paper towels, we buy all-recycled ones from Marcal's Sunrise line or real low end ones that we figure use as little paper as possible.
Then there's Bounty. Bounty ads inevitably seem to boast about their durability and strength. The mothers using them in the ads are made to look smarter than their families, who are portrayed as dumb for thinking the towel can't be rinsed and reused. If we use these towels, it's implied, we'll be smart household heroes.
"No mess can outmatch the cloth-like durability of Bounty," the Bounty Web site boasts.
This begs a question: Why not just use a cloth?
If you buy a stack of washrags at Target, you can keep reusing them over and over and over again.
Bounty products can be rinsed, rung out and reused, but eventually it's going into the landfill and it's taking with it the trees it took to make the cloth, the petroleum to manufacture and deliver it, etc.
People seem to think that paper is no big deal in landfills. If a paper towel were left out in their yard, they reason, it would break down after a few storms.
The problem is that garbage isn't exposed to air and the elements in landfills. It's packed down tightly in such a way that it takes longer to break down than you'd ever guess. Instead of thinking about that thrown-away paper towel as sitting out in your yard, think about it as being put away in a cabinet. It's not breaking down anytime soon.
I'm not saying no one should use paper towels ever. There are some jobs that require paper towels, I think. Cleaning up cat vomit is a good example. If I had to do that with a reusable rag, I'd probably lose my lunch when it was time to rinse it or throw it in the wash.
Some greenies act like you kill puppies every time you use a paper towel. We'd like to encourage a little greenness, not the kind of no-flexibility regime that makes you want to consume extra resources to get even.
So, here's the paper towel hierarchy, as I see it at this moment:
Green: Use recycled paper towels and use them till they fall apart.
Greener: Use reusable rags for washing dishes, dusting and other normal jobs. For disgusting stuff, use the occasional paper towel, but make it a recycled one.
Greenest: Use all reusable rags for everything ... even cat and kid puke. Be confused every time your friends have no interest in being kinder to the earth because you make it look so gross and difficult.
If you're the greenest, I salute you. If you're in the "green" or "greener" categories, you're still doing better than most.
I cringe when I think about the number of paper towels I sent on to the landfill when I was a young apartment dweller. And I was a Bounty girl, so it's likely a lot of those "tougher" paper towels are still around in the nearest landfill. Sorry!
Think I missed the mark? Let me know.
Julie Todd is the night editor at The Herald News in Joliet. She and her
husband are looking to cut the chemicals and get back to basics -- minus the
granola and hemp clothing. They live in a home they bought last year in
Plainfield, where they're making changes to create their own little patch of
utopia.
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