Like all reusable cloth alternatives, you dont necessarily have to eliminate paper towels completely! Everyone has their own formula! Sweetgums hybrid cloth-cellulose towels are more absorbent than regular paper towels, and far more durable than they appear; you can reuse them many, many times. Take a look. Related: Everything You Need to Know About How to Compost. Simply put, they are a reusable version of Scott towels (you know the roll people use to mop up just about anything cause its conveniently set on the kitchen counters?) As someone who (for shame!) If Im travelling, I usually just fold my reusable paper towels in four and pile them up somewhere theyre easy to grab when a mess comes up, like on the kitchen counter. Each week, well do a deep dive into how to clean a different place or item in your home. Once your towels are clean, you can store them in the clean bag. We've updated our Privacy Policy, which will go in to effect on September 1, 2022. Not to mention, reusable alternatives to paper towels can be a super fun way to customize your kitchen, too. Our tests set out to measure the products' ability to absorb the two main kinds of spills youd want to wipe upwater- and oil-basedas well as their ability to hold up to scrubbing, both wet and dry. Made of biodegradable cellulose and organic cotton, the brand says that these cloths can absorb 20 times their weight. At $7 a pop, theyre not cheap, but the brand claims each one will stand up to 50 washings and last 6-9 months. Quite thin, they were easy to roll or fold and offered decent absorption. In terms of germs, the sponge should be rinsed with hot water after each use to reduce chances of bacteria growing. Thats because 50% of profits from all of the companys products go to charity partners who help provide water, hygiene, and sanitation to communities in need. You can also fold them up and store them in a basket. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. These reusable bamboo paper towels are soft, strong, and versatile. That works out to about 23 pounds per American that year. We Compared (Almost) All of Them, We Tested 12 Gooseneck Kettles To Find the Best Ones for Pourover Coffee (and More), We Tested 7 Plastic Cutting BoardsHere Are Our Favorites, We Tested Coffee Makers That Cost $150 (or Less)Here Are Our Favorites, Dim SumStyle Steamed Pork Ribs With Fermented Black Beans Recipe, We Tested 15 Dutch OvensHere Are Our Favorites, We Tested 16 Immersion BlendersHere Are Our Favorites, We Tested 14 Milk FrothersHere Are Our Three Favorites, We Tested 14 Sets of Steak KnivesHere Are Our Favorites, Editor's Picks: Our Favorite Gift-Worthy Items of 2022, We Tested 12 Waffle MakersHere Are Our Favorite Models, We Tested 7 Soda MachinesHere Are Our Favorites, We Tested 13 Espresso Machines to Find the Best Ones, Depending on Your Needs, The Best Skewers, for Whatever You Want to Skewer. The article also notes that a Nielsen report from 2016 showed that 80 percent of North Americans use paper towels regularly; in other parts of the world, less than half the population used paper towels regularly. If it starts to look gross or smell, thats a good sign that it should be replaced. Just like all our products here at TSHU, our reusable paper towels are super easy to care for. I repeated each test five times to get an average, and divided by the area of each towel to figure out the total absorbance per square inch. Grove's guide to going plastic-free at home. Did you enjoy learning more about the best reusable paper towels? At Grove, we take the guesswork out of which products are good for you and your home. You can even reuse your dishcloth up to 200 times! However, theyre more durable and absorbent. Get fresh recipes, cooking tips, deal alerts, and more! In fact, theyre so strong they can hold 13x their weight in water. This means you wont have to deal with any excess waste or plastic when you order from them! This sponge cloth can sop up spills as well as clean surfaces without leaving any streaky lines. Plus, theyre so sturdy, you can even use them to clean dishes. Heres the lowdown on reusable paper towels. Theyre gentle enough to wipe off sticky faces, yet strong enough to scrub tough messes off your stovetop. How do reusable paper towels work? They naturally cling together, making it easy to roll them up on your usual paper towel dispenser (without the snaps that many cloth paper-towel alternatives have).Buy: Unpaper Towels 24 Pack, $54 from Marleys Monsters, Small spills and dusty shelves have nothing on these multipurpose cloths. #mergeRow-gdpr {margin-top: 20px;} Looking for even more awesome tips on how to live a more eco-friendly life? Im well-acquainted with spills: Messy is right there in my social media handles and URL. None of the tested towels did great at this testthey picked up some but not all of the oil, creating the need for another towelexcept the recycled-paper ones, which blew it out of the water. A step-by-step guide, pet leaves you a surprise in the living room. You can use them to clean dishes, wipe down stainless steel appliances and countertops, clean mirrors and windows, and more! You can roll them onto a reused paper towel tube and stick them on a conventional paper towel holder, store them in a basket, or place them in a drawer. The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. For your convenience, this post might contain affiliate links. They last way longer than a conventional or reusable paper towel, but you dont have to feel guilty for tossing one out after you clean up something truly disgusting with it. Best Reusable Sandwich Bags for a Zero Waste Lunch, What Is Amazon Aware? If you dont use them a lot, they can last up to a year! If you need to sterilize it, you can microwave it or briefly boil it. Back then, they consisted of a single sheet of cotton flannel and were moderately absorbent. While they make for great wiper-uppers, they can double as napkins or dish towels, too. Since theyre made from a cellulose-cotton blend, theyre 100% biodegradable. Imagine how many youd save in just one day! And, of course, it should be better for the Earth than the standard paper towel its intended to replace. Its actually after creating my amazing super soft reusable makeup remover pads that I got the idea to work with the same materials to give an extra absorption boost to my reusable paper towels. They also promise no odor, so you wont be pinching your nose each time you need to mop up a spill. But so far, weve been using ours for more than two years now on a daily basis and they still work amazing and are far from looking tired! These are thick, scrubby cloths you could use to do dishes, mop your floors, or wash and dry your car, and I was kind of blown away at how huge a bag of them showed up for just $10. In addition to coming in packs of 6 or 12, you have several fun styles to choose from, including multi-color, white, mixed grays, and vintage lemon print. Theyre so absorbent, they can hold 15x their own weight in liquid. Related: Everything You Need to Make Natural Cleaning Products. It helps doubly when the material is sustainable, like these reusable towels from Marleys Monsters. But which alternatives are right for your needs? Even better, the more you use and wash these unpaper towels, the more absorbent they become! Once theyre fully soiled, stick them in your washing machine or dishwasher so you can use them again and again. This makes them ideal to handle everything from wiping down countertops to soaking up spills. Soaking up a puddle of water is one thing; wiping up spilled oil is quite another, a task that often requires fistful after fistful of paper towels. (I also tested a standard paper towel as a control.). They dominated when it came to absorbency, are pretty much indestructible, and clean up easily without needing a run through the washing machine. But hey it all depends on what you use them for. You can toss them in the washing machine with the rest of your laundry at 30 degrees and leave them out to dry in open air. Heres everything you need to know about reusable paper towels (which will help you discover why I can say I think theyre the best out there! Not only are they great for cleaning granite, stainless steel, and laminate, but they can also clean all kitchen and bathroom surfaces without streaking. Everything You Need to Know About How to Compost, The Best Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergent for Naturally Clean Clothes, The Best Eco-Friendly Mattress for a Healthy Sleep, The Top Beeswax Wraps for Your Zero Waste Kitchen, Biodegradable Trash Bags for Less Plastic Waste, The Ultimate Guide to Zero Waste Grocery Shopping. Best of all, youre getting these reusable paper towels from a company dedicated to making our world a better place. #mc-embedded-subscribe-form .mc_fieldset{border:none;min-height: 0px;padding-bottom:0px;}. They are the most similar to paper towels in terms of use, but theyre often made of bamboo instead of trees. It also performed well, though not perfectly, when it came to the stain test. Most recycled paper towels are better for the environment than regular paper towels because they are unbleached and use recycled paper or other materials instead of brand new paper. Every product meets strict standards for being nontoxic, effective, sustainable, and cruelty-free. Then I did the same on my rough (but beautifully well-seasoned!) Microfiber vs. Cotton- Which One Is More Eco-Friendly? This cloth is a 70/30 mix of cellulose (a.k.a. Cooking and eating (and, really, living in general) are messy activities. In addition to being an outstanding reusable cloth for cleaning, these organic unbleached cotton unpaper towels make excellent eco-friendly paper towels. (If youre a cloth-napkin household, though, a sponge is an otherwise perfect paper towel replacement.). These cellulose cleaning cloths do an amazing job of cleaning pretty much everything around your entire house. Theyre versatile enough to be used for anything from absorbing floor spills, cleaning countertops and glass windows, or even wiping off a babys hands and face. If you decide to purchase some, be sure to use the code EARTHFRIENDLY to get 10% off your order! This makes them better for the environment and better for your family. Theyre stronger than your typical paper towel. You might be familiar with Who Gives a Crap because of their phenomenally soft eco-friendly toilet paper. But these tests were also conducted with scientific objectivity in mind. The single-use towels did quite poorly here, but the flimsier reusables held up surprisingly well. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. Follow these easy steps to go plastic-free throughout your home. Some brands like to make it with bamboo terry and line it with pretty fabric Others prefer cottonsuperfine, quite thick or even with waffle finish. Below, find a selection of options for replacing paper towels and bring yourself a step closer to green living. (Are unbleached recycled paper towels any better than regular ones? Here are some notes on the other models we tested for this review: Jason Horn has been writing about food, drinks, travel and cannabis for more than 15 years. This means they can easily replace up to 17 rolls of paper towels! Alternatives to paper towels are everywhere but are they all equally effective and eco-friendly? When dry, it feels like rough, flimsy-thick paper, but its as hard to tear as a cotton rag. For the reusable towels (seven of the 11 brands we tested), we also tested their reusability and washability with a stain test. They performed slightly worse on all of the tests than Sweetgum, but only slightly, and theyre quite a bit cheaper. Grove Collaborative has you covered with Clean Team. Hard to tell, because Ive never had to replace them yet! But these things are friggin adorable, toothere are a ton of different prints available. I spent many damp hours weighing and measuring these products for scienceand for you. Looking for even more fun and cheerful designs? Microfiber cloths are washer and dryer safe but not disposable! Like paper towels, dish towels, and towels in general, reusable paper towels can scratch or streak items like mirrors, computer screens, and camera lenses. The EPAs latest numbersfor 2018say we used just shy of 3.8 million tons of tissue paper and towels (which includes toilet paper and blow-your-nose tissue, too). Here, again, I conducted the same tests on both a countertop and a cast iron pan, but using a soaked-through towel. Heres a quick breakdown to set the playing field for you: Bamboo is a sustainable paper source that many paper products have switched to. Learn more about Mailchimps privacy practices here. In addition to the regular size, you can also pick up the jumbo cellulose cleaning cloth thats perfect for taking care of those big messes. Theyre made from 100% natural stonewashed linen from flax plants. Related: A DIY Cleaning Products Bundle to Make Natural Cleaning Even Easier. Additionally, for every Hope Cloth purchased, Earth Breeze provides 10 meals to those in need. Fresh news + a little reopening sale to celebrate! Categories Eco-Friendly Living, Waste-Free Living, Copyright 2022 Earth Friendly Tips | Bamboo on Trellis Framework by Mediavine, By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. They are a great go to rag for parents of young children, too! The Best Reusable Paper Towels you can Find (and why!). Not only is Earth Breeze a carbon neutral, cruelty free, and vegan company, but theyre also a proud member of 1% for the Planet. Are recycled paper towels better for the environment? A sparkling kitchen is in your near future.Buy: Premium Grade Microfibre General Purpose Cloths 4-Pack, $34.95 from Koh, Spun from organic cotton, these faux paper towels make cleaning so much easier thanks to their high absorbency. We have a lovely selection here on the TSHU online shop! I rubbed each towel on my smooth, clean countertop 100 times back and forth, then inspected for damage. Then I rated how dark each stain remained after three types of wash: a quick rinse in cold water, a wash in warm water with dish soap, and a standard washing machine cycle. Theyre free of chemicals, plastics, inks, and dyes, and are 100 percent biodegradable.Buy: Tree-Free Paper Towels, $6.25 from Public Goods, For those who appreciate a good bargain first and foremost, youll get the biggest bang for your buck with this 80-pack of reusable cleaning cloths. Plus, because these unpaper towels are minimally processed, the fabric is actually more absorbent and durable than bleached or colored varieties. Concerned about the environment without going overboard, I love to inspire people to make small changes! Reusable Paper Towels - Limited Edition - Katie Rodgers x Seedling, Paper Towel Holder & Reusable Paper Towel - Katie Rodgers x Seedling. The microfiber cloth I tested were both a little less absorbent than the Sweetgum dish cloths, but did a little better on the oil test. Cotton paper towels are very similar to cotton kitchen towels, but theyre made with recycled or scrap fabric and designed to be less durable and more biodegradable and therefore more disposable. Get it wet, and it turns as soft as a cotton rag, too. Unsurprisingly, the literal sponge absorbed more than twice the water per square inch than any of the rest. The results here mirrored those for the dry tests, but the towel that tore, tore faster. I created these so you can try TSHU products for less money!