Ideal Bite

I always wonder about paper vs. water use. Isn't water more of a world emergency? If you use cloth napkins and kitchen rags instead of disposable cleaning wipes you have to wash them, and creating more washing uses up more water... What do you all think about this?

My husband and I have been using cloth napkins for years. Buy better ones for longer life. Pier One have the most durable longest lasting (wait for a sale...they have them all the time...get last year's color/style). IKEA has some really great towels that are just as good as the super expensive department stores. My feelings on the water used to wash napkins, towels, and rags (vs. paper throw aways) is that you are going to do laundry anyway, a few towels and napkins are not really using any more water than a load without those same said towels and napkins. Also, the creation of paper products uses crazy amounts of water and causes by-product pollution as well especially if your papertowel/ napkin is bleached white.

The paper vs water use is a common dilemma, but a completely bogus one. Imagine all the bleach, water, resources, and trees (which use water and whose deforestation causes soil runoff as well as habitat destruction, contribution to global warming, etc) that go into paper napkins and towels which are used once and then begin their long life not degrading in anaerobic landfills. Then imagine washing a load of rags, towels, and napkins in hot water once a week for years, eventually retiring them to use as cleaning or painting rags. Seems a clear decision to me. If you're so worried about it, invest in a front-loading washer.

Aha! Very helpful, thanks! This is the just the kind of information I was looking for to make my mind up.

we use dishtowels cut in half and hemmed. they are a little smaller, very durable, and way cheaper than buying cloth napkins. this way we can have around 50 of them so we don't run out before they get washed and have to use paper instead. we keep them in a big basket and folding them is a chore that rotates among children at our house.

Here's a tip I learned this when I was an exchange student to South Africa.) Give each family member a different style napkin ring. After the meal, they stuff the practically clean napkin back in the ring and use it again for the next meal. They know which is theirs because of the ring. Then you only have to wash them once a week or when they're actually dirty. I haven't bought paper napkins for 20 years....

Really useful ideas! Will definitely try this.

Just yesterday I was thinking we should switch to cloth napkins and then this tip came today. What great timing! I have so many cloth napkins that only seem to get used for company these days. My husband does the wash, he'll just love this!

This is a very good tip. Do the footprint test, I am sure you are going to have great result! http://chocobau.blogspot.com/

We started using cloth napkins a couple months ago. It's amazing how doing something that seems minor has affected so much other waste we used to create. It has now trickled down to using barely any paper towel, compostable paper plates & cups (when camping/hiking) & bio-degradable pet waste bags. Every little bit counts :)