Ideal Bite

Can a bundle of rags save you a bundle?

Submitted by tmeronek on Fri, 09/28/2007 - 1:01am.

The Bite:

Yep. Next time your kitchen counter's wet, reach for a cloth instead of a paper towel. You'll save a lotta paper - including the small, green kind that fits in your wallet.

The Benefits:

Rolling in the dough. Or at least a little of it: If your household uses a roll of paper towels per week, you could save more than $100 per year by switching to dishcloths and tea towels.
Less mess. Americans send 3,000 tons of paper towels to landfills each day.
Safer sopping up. To make paper towels white, many producers use chlorine bleaching, which releases cancer-causing toxins into the environment.
More substance. Cotton tea towels are thicker and can hold more H20 than paper quicker picker-uppers.

Personally Speaking:

We've never been the types to use worn-out undies as rags, so we're glad to have the different reusable options below.

Wanna Try:

Organic Cotton Tea Towels - naturally dyed organic-cotton dishcloths made in North America ($20-$28).
Twist Euro Cloths - superabsorbent, reusable, biodegradable cloth you can throw in the dishwasher ($6/3 cloths).
Seventh Generation Paper Towels - if you gotta use paper towels, go with non-chlorine bleached and 100% recycled ($2).
Natural Resources Defense Council Shopper's Guide - find out how much recycled content is in the paper towels you use.
DIY Bite: Knit your own damn dishcloth.

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Bang For The Bite

It's true, paper towels are way convenient, but if 10,000 Biters who use a roll per week switch to rags, in a year we'll save the weight of 2,340,000 tea towels in paper.