Towels, Tissues and TP

Some time last week during my surgery down time we watched online a program called EcoTrip. The show covers many topics from salmon, to light bulbs. By the way if you happen to have a Netflix account, which most people do ( I bum off my moms.... thanks mom!) you can watch them instantly on your computer. Which is what we did, owning to the fact we have no TV. I digress...

The show that directly impacted us the most, or where we felt we could do the most changing was the paper napkin. Which can be subdivided into TP, paper towels, and kleenex. Most of the tree pulp used to make these everyday items is "virgin" wood and contains chemicals like crazy to make it white. So owing to the fact that our trees make up the bulk of the army fighting global warming, we thought it wise to do our part to keep some of them standing in our stead. Which means, when I go out anywhere and wash my hands I use a paper towel to dry them. That must change. When I reach for a kleenex and toss it away. That must change. And the big and scary TP must also change.

This challenge from a blog I follow called Crunchy Chicken couldn't have come at a better time. Helping us with all the information and facts about moving to cloth TP.

Crunchy writes:

According to Charmin, consumers on average use 8.6 sheets per trip to the bathroom. That's a total of 57 sheets per day and an annual total of 20,805 sheets. There are 230 million adults in the U.S., each averaging a roll and a half per week. Since each roll of toilet paper averages about .5 a pound of paper, that's about 40 pounds of TP per year.

That equals 4.6 million tons of TP used each year. And that's just from adults. To take the calculation even further, if all U.S. adults used only Charmin toilet paper or the like (aka "virgin fiber" with 0% recycled content or post-consumer waste), the environmental cost is approximately (not including the issues with Dioxin):

78.2 million trees
1.35 million tons of air pollution
32 trillion gallons of water
2.1 trillion gallons of oil
18.75 trillion Kilowatt hours of energy

Rather scary huh?

So we went to our local thrift store to get some supplies. I got a small towel that I cut into four pieces and sewed the edges against fraying. They measure now about 6x3 inches, which will easily fit into a back pocket or in my purse. Now when I or Jacob wash our hands we will have our towel where ever we go. Next up kleenex, I couldn't find any old handkerchiefs to buy, plus I don't like the idea of them being white for bloody nose reasons. Anyway, we got some well used napkins in that same thin fabric like a hankie and today I am working on cutting them into the more manageable kleenex size.

As for the TP I purchased an old Cotton flannel sheet that will be cut and sewn. I am not sure on the size yet because I have some other supplies to get in the mean time. Such as a container for the used TP before washing. Also I am waiting for our front loader washing machine which should arrive on the 25th of this month. I haven't posted about that but I will. For more info and all the questions you could ever possibly ask visit Crunchy Chicken's blog.