Ideal Bite

Is There A Greener Quicker Picker-Upper?

Submitted by idealbite on Tue, 01/31/2006 - 7:00pm.

The Bite:

Over 90% of American households use paper towels, creating over 3,000 tons of waste each day. Switching to recycled roll paper towels can help cut down on all this trash.

The Benefits:

If every household in the US replaced one roll of non-recycled paper towels with a roll of 100% recycled paper towels, we would save 864,000 trees and 3.4 million cubic feet of landfill space.
For every ton of 100% recycled paper that is bought, about 4000kWh of energy and 7,000 gallons of water are saved. It also avoids releasing 60 lbs of pollutants into the air.
Roll towels combined with controlled-use dispensers save paper by 25 to 35%, and require less packaging than stand-alone rolls or folded towels.

Personally Speaking:

We both try to use cotton or linen reusable towels as often and possible, and use Seventh Generation’s paper towels whenever we reach for the paper stuff.

Wanna Try:

Look for towels that boast no less than a 40% post-consumer waste content and don’t use a whole lot of packaging.
Choose unbleached paper towels first, process chlorine-free (PCF) second, and elemental chlorine-free (ECF) third.
Seek items having the largest amount of product (higher square footage).
Seventh Generation- 100% post-consumer recycled paper towels ($7.95/4 rolls).
Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value and Planet – 100% recycled (80% by consumers), PCF, and available at a store near you.