Slaying the Plastic Dragon - Day 12 - Paper Towels and Such

Showing off my no plastic souffle!  Spinach from CSA, cheese from the big wax wheel of cheddar.

I grew up in a large family (10 kids) that operated on a tight budget.  Even though my dad was a lawyer and then judge, he was a partner for a small firm in a small city and then he was a county judge.  County civil servants don't get paid all that much (though the benefits were good!)  My mom didn't work and she was ill much of the time (Type 1 diabetes she'd had since she was a teen).  So she had those pre-existing conditions that insurance companies don't like so much.  However, both my parents grew up poor during the Depression and then during the rationing of WWII, so they were quite used to being frugal and in fact, really didn't seem to give it much thought!  They just operated frugally automatically!

So I remember when growing up that my mom wouldn't let us use paper towels to dry our hands.  We had a dish towel for dishes/pots/pans and a hand towel for drying hands.  Paper towel was used for icky stuff or draining bacon on a plate.  In fact, when there was a spill, mom would say don't use up all the paper towels, get a dish towel!

A few weeks ago, before I began this Lenten journey of avoiding plastic, I bought a bunch of dish towels at the grocery store.  My supply was getting sparse and ragged and we had started washing dishes by hand.  But these new dish towels came in handy, because I started noticing that every single paper towel roll is wrapped in plastic.  Paper towels are a really wasteful idea if you think about it!  They are completely unnecessary in the long run.  However,  I know my family will object to having to use rags or towels to clean up some things, like cat vomit.  So I bought a roll of Seventh Generation recycled paper towel and I sternly warned everyone that it was just to use in case of something really icky.  In other cases they need to use the dish towels.  Then I put a couple of dish towels on the counter in front of the paper towel holder.  We also have two dish towels draped over the back of the kitchen barstool closest to the sink.  One is for hands and one is for dishes (I am my mother's child!).  And you know what?  We are into our 2nd week and we still have half a roll of paper towel left!!!!  I just used a square on the floor where someone had obviously dropped an ice cube and not picked it up. It had melted into a little pool of water.   I had just put a load of towels in the wash, so I am currently down to one dish towel and didn't want to use it on the floor.   That's my justification for using paper this time.

In addition to reducing paper towel consumption, I also announced to the family I was going to no longer buy paper napkins.  I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought a dozen cloth napkins for $9.99.  We also had 4 cloth napkins leftover from a set we got about 15 years ago.  I put the napkins in the napkin holder.  The new rule is:  if your napkin is really icky put it into the bag hanging on the other barstool chair.  If it isn't icky, fold it up and keep it near your place at the kitchen table.  Then you can reused it again.  We have a big square kitchen table, so we can just moved the napkin in toward the center and still have room for books and other stuff.

These are exactly the ones I bought.

I am still going buy tissues.  I just can't see anyone in this family using handkerchiefs.  There are those annoying little plastic bits that help you pull the tissue out of the box.  But in the old days, we used to have tissue boxes that didn't have that feature.  Honestly, why is that plastic necessary?  It seems so stupid to use petroleum by products that will never biodegrade so we can more easily get a single tissue out of a box.

For toilet paper, I have found a couple of brands of recycled single rolls wrapped in recyclable paper.  I like that I can recycle that along with the cardboard toilet tubes.  But these individual rolls add up to be more costly.  It might be cheaper to buy a bulk package of many rolls, even though they all come in plastic.  At least you are getting more rolls for the plastic than if you bought a bunch of smaller packages.  It's just that that type of plastic doesn't get recycled like jugs and cartons do.  So it really does wind up in a landfill.  It's a conundrum.  I really resent that people are forced to choose between being frugal and being environmentally responsible.  We need to fix that!

Right now I am researching buying a big tablecloth for my dining room table.  This dining room furniture was one of the best things we bought when we were first married.  An old lady was being moved to a nursing home by her son (that part is sad!) and he was selling her furniture cheap.  We bought this table, china cabinet, chairs and credenza for very little and we've now had to for maybe 22 years!  It is a nice long oval walnut table, with the extensions in, it sits 12 people.  Ever since I've had it, I've been going to Giant Food and buying their long white plastic lined paper tablecloths whenever we use the table (usually for Christmas/New Year's/Passover/Easter).  Well, this year I am not going to buy a plastic tablecloth in plastic packaging.  So I've been on the lookout for a new tablecloth.  I was checking out Vermont Country Store (which seriously has some plastic alternative items - check it out!) but I think I want the kind that are stain resistant, if I can.  However, the stain resistant might contain microfibers that get washed into water supply.  I need to do more research before Passover and Easter are upon us.  I don't have much time!