Paper vs. Cloth Napkins

Hi, everyone; this is Jonathon posting.  Since watching the film "No Impact Man", my wife and I cut back nearly completely on our household paper product usage. We don't purchase or use paper towels, napkins, or tissues. We recognized that reusable items like cloth napkins and handkerchiefs were better.  Because we're not scientists, we used common sense to consider the sustainability of one option compared to another. For example, the plastic packaging used for paper products is wasteful and will take years to degrade in a landfill. Another example would be that you can use cloth napkins several times before needing to wash, while paper is usually only used once then tossed. Therefore, we assumed cloth was the eco-friendly choice.

An article on Treehugger.com discusses the topic of paper versus linen or cloth napkins.  The article points out some interesting statistics on natural resources, like how much water is used up in the production of paper vs. cloth and how much greenhouse gas is emitted during the process. I feel that idea could have been taken a little further by explaining how much greenhouse gas (CO2) would have been eliminated (converted to oxygen) over the life of the tree, but now won't be because it has been made into a paper napkin, and later will be added to a landfill thereby adding methane and CO2 gas to the atmosphere.

Our napkin usage is about 1 cloth napkin per person, per week. My wife and I throw these into our normal wash loads that we would be doing anyway (using a high efficiency washer with cold water and biodegradable soap). If we used more napkins in one week, we could even swap out a t-shirt or a pair of jeans and wear them one more time before washing to counter the load. At that rate, we're washing our two napkins 52 times a year or less in the laundry that we are doing anyway. If my wife and I used paper napkins, one per person, for each meal, three meals a day, we'd be throwing out about 2,184 napkins per year. Add to that the plastic wrapper that is wasted, and the production, delivery to the stores, the trip to the store to get said napkins (we bike to the store, but most people drive). Since paper napkins are thrown away, it doesn't stop there. Add the costs to dispose of that waste, plastic garbage bags, dedicated trucks to pick it up from your curb and deliver to the sorting facility then transporting to the landfill.

When all aspects of the issue are examined, it's clear to us that it's more eco-friendly to use cloth napkins (especially linen- see the article for more details). On top of that, we're saving money by not buying paper napkins, which is a nice little bonus. Who says it doesn't pay to be green?

Next week - organic vs conventional foods.