Revisiting Cloth Napkins – Are They Still the Greenest Choice?
July 13, 2009 by Jennifer
Cloth napkins are one of my favorite green tips for green newbies. They’re easy to start using, cut consumption, and save trees. Plus for a family they’re very cost affective. Then today I saw that posted the following:Treehugger
Are Paper Napkins More Environmentally Friendly?
This piece notes that the footprint may be smaller if a big business (think restaurant) uses paper. They’ve got calculations to back it up. While they do err on the side of cloth still being better for home use, they got their calculations by factoring in typical cotton napkins not organics or other fabrics (although they do mention other fabric choices).
I like the piece but in my opinion they did not comment enough about the huge long life span of cloth napkins in the home. Treehugger factored in a year of washing for cloth napkins in the home, but something to consider is that cloth napkins last a lot longer than one year. So when factoring in the energy and materials used to make cloth napkins you also need to note that they’ll last for many years around the house.
You should also factor in alternative fabrics. You can buy organic cotton, flax, hemp, and other napkins vs. conventional cotton. As for the use factor, all of the cloth napkins I’ve ever owned last for about 4-5 years – although by year 4 they are getting a little blah. Once a napkin is too icky to use as a napkin, I switch it over to a cleaning cloth, where I’ll use it until it dies. This means you get super life out of a napkin and get to use cloth not paper towels to clean with which saves even more resources.
Overall they are saying that cloth is best in the home though, and obviously I agree. Read more about cloth napkins here:
Here’s my new deal. I bought cloth napkins to use instead of paper. Paper is too convenient to pick up and use for other things too, and so I decided to stop using it. However, in the spring and summer and early fall we eat outside, and forgot our napkins unintentionally. So I decided over the winter to try and not use a napkin for a meal unless it was really necessary. Turns out, you might not need napkins for every meal after all.
@Diana good point. Maybe people should try to use less to none. With Cedar though we always seem to end up needing them – he can be messy!