Tree Hugging Family - Living Green

Paper Towel Challenge Update

by Peggy on May 12th, 2008

Last week, we started the Paper Towel Challenge at Tree Hugging Family. If you missed that post, please visit it.

I’ll let you know how I’m doing in just a bit, but first, let’s talk about you! Joining our challenge so far are the following readers:

DramaMama, Kisha, Jodi, Nix and Linette

If I left your name off, it’s just because I thought you were commenting and not joining the challenge. If I’m wrong, let me know! Likewise, if I shouldn’t have your name here. Feel free in join in at any time, or just silently follow along without commenting — whatever suits you.

Please let us know if you came up with anything interesting on your list of paper towel uses last week. Also, what uses are you giving up? Do you have a roll goal in mind (use only X rolls a week, etc).

So, what did I use my paper towels for in the past week, and how many did I use? And what does it have to do with angel food cake?

A little background: I use a dish towel to dry my hands after washing in the kitchen. I also use a second dish towel to clean with most of the time. And I have cloth napkins, so I’m usually not tempted to use a paper towel.

While I have already drastically reduced my paper towel use over years past, I’m not really as good as I thought. My list reveals that sometimes you use paper towels just cause they’re hanging around.

Here’s what I did:

•Cleaned up spilled wet coffee grounds. (I thought I’d just have to start on another dish towel if I used one for that.)

•Angel food cake plate. (Oh, how lazy! This was late at night and I guess I couldn’t be bothered to reach into the cabinet for a plate.)

•To cover up pizza dough so it could rise. (Hmm, not sure why I didn’t use a cloth napkin instead.)

•Twice - Dried out the cat’s food bowl after washing. (I wanted to immediately fill it with dry food, and I didn’t feel comfortable using the same dish towel I have out for hand drying.)

•On bottom of plate to drain grease from fried food after taking out of pan.

•Cleaned up raw chicken juice that spilled on counter.

•Used it to clean an everyday mess because I didn’t refill the dish towel drawer in time.

•Husband — grabbed one because he forgot a cloth napkin and the paper towels were closer.

•Husband — cleaned up jam “because it was sticky.”

•Husband — used with bacon cooking in microwave.

All this took up about one half of a roll. So, my goal is to either use only one fourth of a roll a week, or stop using altogether. I can’t decide which.

There are also a few cat things (vomit and slight misses at the litter box) that happen from time to time that didn’t occur last week, and I like to use paper towels for those cat things.

Well, obviously my list contained some uses I need to ditch. And keeping that list has helping me think about each use more. The usage list is eliminating the automatic reach.

Here’s what I’m going to try:

•Stop using paper towels as snack plates, duh. I don’t do it a lot, but it does happen sometimes. If I really don’t want to use a plate, I can always use a cloth napkin instead.

•I want to make sure I always have the dish towel drawer refilled. This may mean buying a few more dish towels and making sure I don’t leave clean ones unfolded in the laundry area.

•I also need to work on making the cloth napkins more accessible so that we’re not tempted to reach for a paper towel for things like covering pizza dough. But mainly, it would help us remember to grab one before heading to the dining area. Right now my cloth napkins are kept in a wire basket in the food pantry at the end of the kitchen. I keep them there because I’m afraid my cat would walk all over them and knock them out of the basket if I leave them on the counter — he would! I have limited drawer space, but it sounds like I need to do some moving around in order to get the cloth napkins in a drawer in the main kitchen area.

•Try to use cloth 100% of the time for cleaning.

Remember, for week two of the challenge, work toward reducing your paper towel usage by half. After that, you can evaluate your progress and decide if you need to eliminate more uses in order to meet your goal.

Please remember to let us know how you’re doing!

Image via flickr.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

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POSTED IN: Green Challenge