One more dilemma?
Paper towels vs cloth towels:
I have both in my kitchen but I’m not sure which one is more environmentally friendly/unfriendly:
Cloth towels can be a dangerous breeding ground for germs and need good and frequent washing to disinfect, with all that implies for the environment.
But can be reused.
The paper ones have a strong negative environmental impact from tree harvesting to landfill problems.
But are much more hygienic, which is of the upmost importance in a kitchen.
The morass of unverifiable, even incomprehensible, green credentials claimed by vendors and media influencers (who are of course vendors too) make daily trivial purchase decisions even harder. The simplest approach to that is to ignore all the claims except those that measure some useful outcome and do it fairly transparently. If you have thought about it for a few seconds and can see one product is ‘greener’ in a way that makes sense to you then go with that. But you could be wrong! Yep you could be but does it matter that much? You might get it right next time - assuming that there is a right.
When it comes to bigger questions such as what kind of car or household heating to buy or how to invest your super give it more time and take advice.
Life is full of uncertainties but you have to make the best of it and deal with whatever turns up. This means making decisions daily with less than full information and understanding. Worrying constantly whether you have been good enough and public hand wringing do not do anything to help you make these decisions well.
Gaby, if you must use paper towels, there are various ones made from recycled materials (Even who Gives a Crap) has some, which would be better than those from virgin materials if cost is no object for you.
And many cloth towels are synthetic releasing synthetic microfibres into the environment. There are cotton ones, but they tend to develop smells quickly from microbes residing in the cloth.
Viva appear to be doing a pretty good job.
https://www.viva-cleaning.com.au/en/sustainability
And in the Cairns region, all such materials go into the Bedminster composting system instead of landfill.
Are plastic wrappers that have aluminium foil underneath able to recycled in soft plastics?
Do you have an example as some may be recyclable (such as Chip and cracker packets (silver lined)), while others not if it is a true metal foil?
Yes, the crisps and cracker liners. I have been putting them into soft plastics but just wanted to be sure I was doing the right thing.
Here’s one I’ve been mulling and would be interested in people’s thoughts.
Is it more environmentally responsible to buy tissues that are made from:
Unfortunately I don’t seem to have the option of recycled tissues in a standard cardboard box where I shop.
I’ve had similar dilemmas in the past and found the REDcycle website very helpful. Includes a list of what is recyclable, but also what isn’t.
https://www.redcycle.net.au/what-to-redcycle/
‘Chip and cracker packets (silver lined)’ get the tick for recycling.
What a great question, because there are so many different opinions around the internet.
If we had a carbon scoring system similar to food stars for individual products we might be able to make better decisions. Until such time, if ever?
The internet suggests between brands of similar products the carbon footprints may not be the same. Paper pulp can come from virgin forest harvesting through to managed fast growing plantation timber. Paper products may be made in Australia from Australian plantation timber or imported. The wood chips could have come from anywhere in Asia or even New Zealand and Australia. There’s some extra carbon miles in the transport and handling to consider.
Paper products made from recycled products require processing with heat and chemicals. An interesting suggestion is that their carbon footprint may not be that different to some paper from new product. Several sources suggested the real benefits of recycled paper come in other ways. There is less raw water required in their production. No trees needed to be harvested reducing demands in forestry. If reprocessed nearby there may be a saving in carbon miles especially compared to imported products.
For recycled paper products there are various estimates of the benefits for a particular product. What’s not evident is whether the losses in the recovery and recycling processes are fully captured. Some recycled paper plants send a percentage of the paper products returned to a furnace. Burning that side stream powers the recycling process and may at times export surplus electricity to the grid. Technically burning paper is consuming a renewable. The side stream can be a very significant portion of the waste paper sent to the plant.
I’m not suggesting using recycled paper is a poor choice. The better we are informed as consumers the better our choices. One supplier of recycled paper may be a poorer choice than another. It’s important to consider we don’t recover 100% of the paper we use. Hence there will always be some newly made paper products consuming wood chip. It would be great to be able to know as needs arise, which to choose for the lower environmental impact.
Maybe a handkerchief. They are often forgotten in favour of a single use, disposal tissue. Handkerchiefs can last years and used hundreds of times in their life.
I have used hankerchiefs all my life as our son also does.
I do not go out without a folded one in the left hand pocket of my pants and I always have an unfolded one in my shorts pocket at home.
They are getting hard to find these days, and the only retailer that I know that still stocks them here is Best & Less.
The quality has also substanially diminished, and one can see throught them even when brand new.
Assuming you think the two options are equally effective one could dwell in that garden trying to work out which is ‘greener’. If you have no desire to carry around a glob of live bacteria and growth medium in your pocket and re-apply it to your own face from time to time then that is one more agony avoided. Hmmm green!
Interesting comment but incorrect. If one blows one’s nose, unless they thoroughly disinfect/sanitise their face and hands after blowing (I am yet to know of anyone that does), their face will already be covered by the same ‘glob of live bacteria and growth medium’ which may be present in a handkerchief after blowing. Using a handkerchief will have no effect on contaminating a face with ‘glob of live bacteria and growth medium’, as the face will already be contaminated with such.
This assumes that you don’t share your nose blown handkerchiefs with others, if you do, then you may be correct…and lead to the contamination of a face which otherwise have not been contaminated with the particular ‘glob of live bacteria and growth medium’.
The point is not how hygienic the practice is, what matters is belief. If you feel it is yucky then it is, this is how the decision is made not on the science behind it. Every day this constrains the options that people will consider.
Like our sporting heroes on the field?
No need for ‘kerchiefs or tissues. Perhaps we need to replace the turf with a hard surface. The Tennis, NBL and Netball all seem to have kicked the habit.
How to best ration ones handkerchief through the school day was a frequent childhood dilemma. There was trouble if it was not used and trouble if it did not last the week. Thankfully someone invented tissues and for others sporting fields.
Should we not get too caught up about which product is greener? Especially in these days of Covid.
That’s without putting an environmental or health risks cost on the production and ongoing maintenance of the pocket handkerchief.
I well remember the days of putting out empty milk bottles to get filled ones. They were all washed and reused over and over and over.
As for recycling, the green tinged recycled glass bottles, jars, and even decorative items have all but disappeared.
Don’t forget to add in all the transportation environmental costs into the equation.
Unfortunately, that ethos is slowly breaking.
funny!
The op shops around here frequently sell new handkerchiefs. We still buy the daintier versions for the boss lady from op shops.
OK my tuppence worth…
I’m afraid that I have become cynical when it comes to products liberally splashed with non-specific green claims. Until there is some form of credentialing that can guarantee that all green claims made on a product have been verified as true, I view generalised claims as hyperbole and simply don’t believe them. This is unfortunate, as I am sure that among the chaff, there are some claims that are correct. But which ones??
In the meantime, we try to do our bit to help the environment by ‘doing the right thing’ when ever reasonably possible.
With container recycling programs, it is possible to separate out some of the clear and coloured containers. This has enormous potential to maximise glass recycling. The challenge with mixed colour glass streams which have occurred from kerbside collection, about the only colour glass that can be made is brown. Separating colours glass can be recycled back to the colour of the original container.
