Most paper towels are from trees in Nordic Boreal forests (home to grizzly bears, elk and moose). Switching to recycled or reusable versions lessens environmental footprint and also costs less.
Dream Cloth is a washable alternative to paper towels (sold in packs of 3). Made from repurposed cotton and cellulose (wood pulp), it’s perfect to soak up spills, or wipe appliances/counters. Due to holding 13 times its weight in water and fast-drying, you’ll never get that icky sponge smell.
Use with biodegradable cleaning brands (unscented for pregnancy/breastfeeding/babies and affected medical conditions). Avoid essential oils near pets (citrus oils are unsafe, so don’t use to clean floors/counters).
At first it’s a bit crispy, but this is what helps stop bacteria (a quick rinse under the tap softens it up to absorb like a sponge and scrub like a cloth).
Then just launder or pop in the dishwasher and dry flat (don’t use fabric conditioner nor tumble dry, as this reduces absorbency). Designed to last around 50 washes (9 months), you can then cut it up and compost and of use.
Greenpeace has been critical of clear-cutting of Sweden’s remaining old-growth forests (which has harmed endangered wildlife) in order to make kitchen paper towels.
And a recent lockdown by union members at a tissue mill in New Zealand when local workers (many of Maori descent) did not receive their request for a pay rise (to keep up with inflation) from a company that made $1.8b profit.
In Japan, nobody uses disposable paper towels (11% of land is arable, so they don’t have the luxury of creating landfills or ‘industrial composting heaps’). If you’re fed up of sorting waste into two or three bins, residents of one Japanese town have to recycle into 45 categories!
Recycled Paper & Bamboo Kitchen Towels
Who Gives a Crap? makes recycled paper rolls in plastic-free packaging. The rolls are a bit shorter to keep packaging/shipping costs low but they work just as well. The 2-ply strength can handle spills from countertops and cubicles.
Kitchen Towels (from cereal boxes & newspaper)
Serious Tissues offers kitchen rolls made from old cereal boxes and newspaper, sold in plastic-free packaging. Produced in the Midlands to create local employment (subscribe online for big savings), each delivery includes 6 rolls of jumbo 100-sheet rolls in thick 3-ply size.
The tissues use non-chlorine bleaching agent to remove colour from magazines. Wholesale orders are supplied to shops, offices, hotels, pubs, hospitals and GPs.
Super-Strong Bamboo Kitchen Towels
Bazoo bamboo kitchen roll (enter code at checkout for £10 off) is a brand set up by friends who left jobs in legal admin and building marquees. These extra-long rolls (120) are free from chlorine bleach, super-absorbent (bamboo stalks are as strong as steel) and sold in recycled paper packaging.
Although bamboo is not local, it harvests within a year (so prevents logging trees). Each pack profiles animals threatened by deforestation (the company protects 100m2 of endangered rainforest habitat for each purchase).
Unbleached Bamboo Kitchen Towels
Naked Sprout Bamboo Kitchen Roll (coupon code englandnaturally for 10% discount) is made from FSC-certified unbleached bamboo, sold in packs of 6 to 30.
The ultra-absorbent 2-ply rolls have 100 large sheets per roll (no bleach, scent, plastic or chemicals) and cost the same as leading brands, per sheet.
