September 2022 Food Challenge - Kitchen Wipes/Cloths - what do you use?

A useful observation it opens up the possibilities to using a variety of yarns to produce cloths for different purposes rather than just buying ready made.

She might also have used a yarn made from reconstituted cellulose IE plant fibre. There are a number of products including viscose Rayon, Lyocell, Tencel which boast similar or better eco credentials to natural fibres such as cotton. The second and third of these mentioned are supposedly more suitable for wet use and washable. The raw material required can come from harvested and chipped plantation eucalypts, beech, bamboo pith or other species. The extent of the green credentials of any of these sources including cotton production varies by location and grower.

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True. However, I avoid using viscose rayon, because some of them release synthetic microfibres into the sewer, some don’t, and it depends what was used to manufacture it.

I avoid that by making sure that I only use raw natural fibres, rather than reconstituted fibres.

On that subject, I strongly suspect that if we investigated, we would probably find some plant/s in Australia that would do a sterling job, but we don’t know much about Australian edible plants and Australian plant fibres. We stick with what we already know.

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I think I’ll just let the cat lick my benches clean.

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I use single use paper toels for spills on the floor – they then go into the compost; for the kitchen bench I use the bright yellow synthetic cloths which get rinsed regularly and then every night I roll them up and nuke them for 2 minutes in the microwave on high. That not only kills all germs but stops them smelling and doesn’t seem to impact on their longevity. They get replaced every few of weeks.

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I prefer natural fibres but have a range of different dishcloths, including cotton, micro fibre, cellulose sponges and sometimes cut up old tshirts.
To be honest I’m more concerned about the amount of plastic packaging I inevitably bring home from the supermarket. What did we do before this terrible development. Supermarkets are to blame!

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Perhaps the following topics might be of interest.

Or

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I prefer a sponge with scratchy top. I microwave at least once a day for 60 seconds and put in sunny spot to dry completely before reusing. I have a spare to use if first one not dry when needed. :blush: I vehemently oppose single use anything, and find kitchen wipes to flimsy and stain easily.

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Careful, your cat might lick your benches clean but using animals as workers comes under ‘Animal Exploitation’ in the cruelty to animal list?
:rofl:
BTW Did you choose ‘Other’ in the Poll? :laughing:

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While it might be an easy option, it might not be a great option if one is concerned about their health.

Cat saliva contains pasteurella and bartonella which can be devastating for people with weakened immune systems and lead to health complications which include blindness, heart failure (and even death which occurred recently in NZ).

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To my knowledge all fabrics shed in the wash, rayon as well as cotton. But the most polluting are the plastic microfibres shed from petroleum based synthetics, those are non-biodegradable and most harmful to our marine eco-system.

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Viscose or otherwise known as Rayon is a form of cellulose fibre and does break down. The process to manufacture it is however a dirty industry process.

More environmentally safer similar products that use more closed system processes are lyocell (Tencel is a trademarked lyocell), Modal, and acetate.

We also have some topics about much of this on the Community but this one should cover most of it.

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This paper also looks at the time taken for degradation:

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Biodegradation-of-Three-Cellulosic-Fabrics-in-Soil-Warnock-Davis/4fe5ebfdb75bcbe84202b8fd5fab95b384f827f0?p2df

What is interesting and useful is the following curve included in the paper:

image

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I knit my own dish cloths from 8ply cotton. They last for ages, are environmentally friendly. Easy to make, plenty of patterns available on the internet and from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

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Any preference for yarn brand or supplier? Is one scane sufficient?
Assume they make great personalised gifts?

Note: Apple’s spell checker does not know the word ‘scane’. Are they suggesting those hand knitting or crocheting are now preserving the skill and an art that is not so well known in a different generation? Reassuringly I do know several of a younger generations who are into hand spinning, dying and knitting. Apple may be wrong.

Curiosity Corner!
Is anyone inspired by the ultimate green challenge to grow your own cotton, hand gin and spin direct from the bolls? It’s one way to show pride, self assure the ‘organic’ credentials of the product and vouch for the irrigation used to produce each boll. A warm dry climate green house might be helpful in some parts of Oz. Hopefully I’m not being too optimistic. I can remember in early schooling there were those in class who could bring bolls in from bushes growing in backyards including one of our neighbours in our part of Brisbane.

The alternative may be purchasing certified organic product. However the certification it appears does not exclude machine cultivation, harvesting or the use of imported irrigation. Home grown can always use the grey water from the weekly washing to support hand tillage, weeding and picking. There are those who grow and knit from their own wools, (goat, sheep etc.).

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I use Koh spray and cloths, which I change out every other day (we are only two adults in the household), or earlier if very soiled. Around the sink I’ll do a wipe down with a surfaces-only sponge to get rid of water and gunk before spraying down and hitting the stainless steel with the Koh diamond sponge. We moved into our first place last year and the 33 year old sink comes up shiny and new thanks to the diamond sponge, way better than the old ajax.

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I use Gumption on my sink. I think it is the detergent in it as it also works a treat on banana sap on knives - those who grow bananas and get the sap on clothes and implements from the fronds and stems will know how hard it is to remove. It oxidises, turns brown and stains.

I reduced the use of cloths, towels etc by processing things on the sink, a quick wipe of the hand or flush of water and its gone to the grease trap (which I clean regularly). Liquids go straight through to the septic. Only wish I had a double drainer sink, they are rare in the age of dishwashers.

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If you really want to save the environment they could be knitted from your own wool.

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For the past few years, I’ve been using hand-made (knitted/crocheted) cotton cloths for cleaning everything except fats/oils.
The cloths last more than a year, and I have a few to cycle through. They wash and dry easily. I baulk at the amount of micro-plastics shed from fabrics and I like this alternative.
They can also look nice.

I make sets for friends as gifts, and they are very popular.
The only downside is the time spent making them, but it’s a hobby I can do in any free time, or multi-tasking e.g. while watching TV, chatting with friends, or being a car passenger.

NB. For fats and oils, after getting off as much as possible with a spatula, if there’s too much left to clean with a cloth then I’ll use a paper towel and compost it.

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Wool isn’t good as a cleaning material. It’s fluffy, stretches, and felts easily. It’s also not all that durable.

Cotton, linen and hemp are better.
Recycled cotton t-shirts work too–cut the body into a thin spiral (say 8-10mm wide) and use as a yarn.
And of course old cotton knits can be frogged to use the yarn.

For new yarn, a 50g ball of 10 ply will make about 2 cloths, depending on size. I like 18-20cm squares.

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Hi @Jen, would you have a photo to share of one as I am sure many members would be interested in seeing what they look like for inspiration.

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