Simple Ways to Be Green and Still Buy Paper Towels

All this talk of global warming and "Going Green" probably makes you think of things you will have to give of to help the environment. You might think using paper towels are out of the question for an environmentally friendly home. Paper towels may sound evil when it comes to protecting the environment, but they don't have to be. As long as you are a little more conscience of the paper towel product you do purchase there is no reason you should have to give them up.

I have been living in a way to help the environment for many years, but I haven't been able to give up my paper towels. I just make sure that the paper towel product I do purchase is as green as it can be, by following a few simple guidelines. Try not to get overwhelmed with finding paper towels that follow all these guidelines. If not all, try to get them to follow as many as you can.

Use 100% recycled, not virgin fibers

Gone are the days of the those brown scratchy recycled paper towels. They do still exist in the occasional public bathroom but they are not your only option when you choose recycled paper towels for your home.

Virgin fibers are fresh from a tree. Just think when you buy paper towels made from virgin fibers the tree is killed for something that can only be used once then thrown away to sit in the landfill.

Look for a higher post-consumer percentage

Even if a paper towel product is 100% recycled it often has a certain amount of pre and post consumer waste in it. Look for the highest post-consumer waste. Post-consumer waste comes from product you and others have recycled.

Use non-chlorine bleached

Non-chlorine bleached does not mean you have to buy brown color paper towel. You can still get the pretty white paper towels and help the environment. Just make sure the paper towels you buy are whitened with a non-chlorine bleach. Most paper towels that do not use chlorine are proud of that fact and state it on the packaging.

Some environmentally friendly companies use peroxide to whiten their paper towels, which is a safer yet similarly effective way to whiten paper.

Packaging

You probably can't get around not buying paper towel rolls packaged in plastic. But you can buy paper towels that offer the most per package. That, in turn, will mean less plastic packaging used in the long run. Also, look for packaging made of recycled and recyclable materials.

Use cloth as your number 1

Use cloth as your main go to for a spill. Keep paper towels for those really icky messes that you don't want to deal with after you wipe them up.

Throw them in the compost

If you have a compost bin throw in your paper towels after you are done. You may not be able to recycle a used paper towel but it can be composted. So, make that green paper towel even greener by turning it into compost.