One Small Step: Use Cloth Napkins
August 26, 2007 by Jennifer
Cloth napkins feel nicer to use, are cost efficient, and are much healthier for the earth than paper napkins or paper towels. Paper napkins not only create waste within their own right but also they come in wasteful packaging.
We have usable cloth napkins we bought over five years ago. Our now scrappy and unusable napkins are used for dusting and cleaning. Pretty soon they’re going to biodegrade right at our house they’re used so much. To keep them looking good throw them in a wash when you do a load of cold delicates.
I found some inexpensive organic cotton napkins ($3.99 for one) at The Organic Hearth.
Or you could splurge and get a hearty set of four sustainable hemp or hemp/cotton napkins that are hand embroidered with your choice of design at Shoji Designs. But these napkins will last forever and come in beautiful colors of hemp; natural, spruce, ivory, or brown. And the embroidery is amazing.
Paper accounts for the largest amount of solid landfill waste. This one small step can save trees, cut down on landfill waste, and make your table nicer all at the same time.
Remember all the small steps you complete add up to many steps and a happy healthier earth.
I love these! They are so pretty. I love cloth napkins and prefer them to paper for many reasons.
This blog looks amazing Jennifer. I will definitely be stopping by here a lot!!
Well, I’m glad to hear you use cloth napkins
These ones are very nice; I like cloth and herbs so it all works out. I hope you do come by a lot. The official launch is in one more day — so hopefully a lot of people will come by. I’ve got lots planned.
Cool. I’ll have to talk about you over at Declutter it!
I’m embarrassed to admit it, but this is something I hadn’t even thought of. Thanks for such a simple tip – with the beautiful fall-colored home accessories out right now, this is the perfect time to make the switch.
It is the perfect time to make the switch. You can find them so inexpensive this time of year too because everyone starts planning for holiday meals so stores bring them out in the masses. The ones listed here are more spendy but beautiful but places like Ross and Target have perfectly nice sets continually on sale.
Our family started to use cloth napkins everyday and just this past week I’ve noticed a HUGE reduction in the amount of garbage we go through. Amazing!
For our cloth napkins, we use painted clothespins to identify whose is whose so we can keep using our napkin as long as it is clean enough. We even glued tiny little decorations on them– turtles, ants, a puppy dog.