Fall classes are filling up quickly. Don’t miss out on the class of your choice. Register early to make sure you get in on the goodness. Brand new Monday giveaway posted below. Enter, enter, enter, and then enter again!
I have a paper free kitchen. This confuses some people when they first come in to the kitchen for classes. I made this decision pretty early on. With upwards of 20 people passing through my kitchen each week that is at least 20 napkins a week, 80 napkins a month. Plus if I used paper towels, that would be at least a roll per class if not more. This was going to be a lot of paper wasted for no great reason.
I made the decision early on to use only cloth napkins and provide a great big stack of towels for wiping, drying and anything else you use towels or paper towels for in the kitchen. I am pretty sure the investment up front may have been more, but two years on, I know it has saved oodles of dollars and even more oodles of trees.
As I gear up for my fall classes and look for ways to make my kitchen even more eco-friendly, I got to thinking about this tree/paper waste factor and so headed over to my fave cloth towel provider People Towels where they list the following stats:
- To make one ton of paper towels, 17 trees and 20,000 gallons of water are polluted.
- Every day, over 3,000 tons of paper towel waste is produced in the US alone.
- Decomposing paper towels produce methane gas, a leading cause of global warming.
- The average person uses 2,400 – 3,000 paper towels at work, in a given year.
Um… so there! So, I stock my kitchen full of towels and though I have a washing machine I don’t have a dryer. I do spend a significant amount of time folding towels and napkins but this simply allows for an opportune time to catch up on the phone with my grandma once a week.
I know that many place have now installed hand dryers as a way to cut down on paper towels but I really just hate these things and so I keep a towel with me. Consider cutting up old towels, t-shirts, bed sheets or perhaps getting yourself a stylish version from the awesomely responsibly and very stylish People Towels.
The People Towels people wanted to show their love and so are showing their live loud and proud by offering this week’s giveaway. Yay fun!
Question Of The Day: What is your best tip to help green up your kitchen and/or your cooking?
Enter to To Win People Towels!
People Towels have generously offered up for you a set of 3 People Towels in the following delightful patterns: Protect the Earth, Wise tOWeL and Green Keys.
Here are the ways to enter:
- Head on over to my Fan Page and tell me what you do to green your kitchen
- Post a comment below
- Follow me on Twitter
- Follow People Towels on Twitter
- Click ‘Like’ on my Fan Page
- Click ‘Like” on People Towels Fan Page
And CONGRATULATIONS to last week’s winner Melissa of contagioushealth.blogspot.com who was the lucky winner of the Vege Greens. Keep getting your greens everyone!
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I am always impressed by your paperless kitchen, it’s wonderful!
I do as much paperless as I can… we have an emergency roll of (100% recycled paper) paper towel for big spills.
These People Towels are pretty – thanks for the link!
We have paper towels at my cottage and using them always seems like a bit of a wasteful indulgence- and then I get in trouble for staining the towels when I use those instead.
Compost. We have our backyard composter, but I’d love to get a worm bin too for the kitchen especially since my 3 year old is very keen on wormies these days. Naturally we use our home grown compost to feed our veggie and herd gardens.
Great towels by-the-way.
I need a back yard so I can compost.
We keep it meatless in our kitchen for environmental reasons. Neither my partner nor I are vegetarians, but about two years ago we decided that we wouldn’t bring factory farmed meat into the house. It very quickly turned into no meat in the house at all since I learned how much more fun it was to cook without meat as the centrepiece of a meal!
And it goes without saying now for a lot of people, but I also love my colorful and creative reuseable shopping bags and produce bags. Etsy has a wide array of sellers who make cute cloth (and even organic cotton!) shopping bags.
With you on the meat-free kitchen.
I do the reusable towel thing as well. I got some cheap microfiber towels from the dollar store and we just pop them in the wash when they start looking grungy.
That’s what I have.
I prefer to use dish towels and cloths than paper towels. I think I’ve converted my husband from a paper towel user too!
Following you on twitter
Following your fan page on FB
I use these bags for a lot of my produce. They are plastic, but they’re easily reusable and great for washing veggies once I get them home as well.
Great idea!
By increasing the amount of raw foods that I eat, I have cut way down on the use of my oven and stove. This appliance is an energy-sucking machine, so it is much more eco friendly to use less of it. I also stopped using plastic water bottles and I use filtered water that I pour into a glass when I’m at home, or take my aluminum bottle for on-the-go.
we try to use a lot less paper towels than we thought we needed. we get our veggies from a CSA, which has been great for us and has cut down on our costs tremendously. and of course, we don’t use grocery store bags!
i’m already a fan on facebook
commented on your Fan page
became a fan of people towels
following people towels on twitter
Reusing the plastic bags from the produce department, or having cloth bags. I have a bit of parinoia about not using bags for my produce after years of working at grocery stores and seeing all the grossness spilled on the check-out belt. Reusing the bags or using cloth bags I don’t feel as bad when I stick my produce in them.
I never take bags for my produce. It kind of angers the check out people but if they really want me to use a bag, they should offer a paper version too.
What a great idea. I made a huge stack of cloth napkins this summer to cut down on our paper towel usage, but am looking for substitutes in the kitchen as it seems I still use a lot of them there. I’m with Metta about the produce bags though. Our neighborhood is rife with people who bring their dogs into the grocery store…and let them ride in the cart. I just can’t see the logic in letting my produce roll around in feces before bringing it home…
I can’t see the logic in putting a dog in a grocery cart. Do they let their dogs cool off in their fridge at home?
Love these! What a great contest!
We use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins here, but I still buy paper towels. Our kitchen isn’t Vegetarian and I admit that I’m slightly paranoid when it comes to wiping up meat messes so I always do that with a paper towel. We do try to be mindful though about our paper towels and use cloth towels for most tasks.
I have some old towels I use for cleaning,but I think I still use too many paper towels:( I need to ween myself off them:-)cc
Go cold turkey! If they’re not in your house- you’ll have to find a new solution.
Thank you!That’s great advice that can be applied to many things:-)cc
I tried to reduce the amount of paper by bringing in a big stack of organic cotton clothes to my classroom. We use these clothes to clean our classroom.
Check out my comment on your Facebook page.
Liked your fan page!
Liked the People Towels fan page!
I also use towels to clean up instead of paper towels.
I’ve been using cloth napkins for years …I often get made fun of…like I’m miss fancy pants! I even take mine to the beach when we bring snacks!
Love the cute towels!
Laz
What a great article! And these are all really great comments!! I too want a backyard for a garden/compost/fresh herbs!!
My tip, is packaging. Anything that you purchase that comes in a package usually has a ‘better alternative packaging’ that is sold in the store as well. I try to make sure any plastic packaging can be recycled in my area, and as well if I can I purchase as little things with packaging as is possible.
I love my vermicomposter…it cuts down on the organics I put out in my green binnd I use the casing for my garden. My sweetie will often find a bowl of what he thinks may be the beginnings of a tasty dinner, only to be told, “nope, that’s for my wormies”.
Thanks for writing about going paperless… I have been trying to cut down on my paper towel use for awhile, but after reading your post I think I just need to supply myself well with cloths and go cold turkey!
We use the “sham-wow” towels instead of paper towels, and they are great.
Just found you through PeopleTowel Tweet; so glad I did. In my kitchen we recycle, compost, use only bio-degradable cleaners, keep everything except the fridge but including the microwave unplugged when not in use, and buy organic foods to keep it stocked! I also just discovered PeopleTowels and am really interested in their product. I want to challenge myself to go paper towel free for a week, eek!
Well… here are my top kitchen tips to green up the kitchen…
1. Loose leaf tea… I am a tea finatic and I love loose teas… no tea bags.
2. Compost, and I do use the compost on my garden.
3. We have a veggie and herb garden to grow as much of our own food as possible. We rent our place and the landlords had a problem with me turning our entire yard into a garden so we have two small gardens and lots of things in pots.
4. Say no to plastic bags at the grocery store and in the produce department. I pile up all my fresh produce loose… I am sure the cashiers think I am ridiculous but I don’t see the point in packaging it all up to unpack it when I get home.
5. Finally, we brew beer and wine at a local shop so we reuse all of our bottles.
Oh one more… I am in love with our organic food bin from Urban Harvest. The food is amazing and they never use any unnecessary (sp) packaging. I just can’t stop but I must.
Love you Meghan… you are my Hero!
Lindsay
This is a really great idea! I use recycled paper towels, but this is a way better alternative. I try to be as green as possible – I use reusable shopping bags and produce bags, buy environmentally friendly products (i.e. dish soap) and shop at my local farmers market, so my fridge is filled with organic, locally grown food. I also save food scraps for composting – I live in Vancouver and the city now has a food scrap collection program.
1. Use cloth napkins at home
2. reusable containers for the kids lunches – their lunches are trash free. (Although I have yet to find the perfect lunch containers for the kids but I will keep looking.
I’m doing a lot of the same things as your other readers. I’ve listed a few examples below.
* Cloth napkins – Some of them I’ve had for 15 years or more.
* Compost
* Microfibre cleaning cloths. I like the ones from e-cloth. I use them in the bathroom as well, but not the same ones as I use for the kitchen. That would be too gross.
* Grow yer own
* Buy local and organic as much as possible
* Weekly veggie/fruit bin (local, organic, no bags)
* Recycle or re-use packaging. Grocery lists go on the back of the receipt from the week before, then get recycled.
* I still sometimes use zip-top bags, but I wash and reuse them. I even built my own bag drying device. Pics up on my blog later today.
* Cloth bags for shopping (Some are 20 plus years old – the LOOKS I get from the cashiers, especially the ones that aren’t as old as my canvas shopping bags!)
We’ve been paper-towel and paper-napkin free in our house for a few years now. It came mainly from being broke and choosing to spend my money on other things, but also environmental considerations. We can always use a few more towels!
We use tupperware to carry lunches, snacks, etc instead of sandwich bags. When I go somewhere where I know I will be taking out food I bring a reusable container with me. The great thing is that there are so many great choices out there now to help with this.
Sham
We stopped buying paper towels and napkins awhile ago, and I really don’t miss them very much. It is easy to throw cloth napkins and cleaning rags into the wash, and they just don’t take that long to fold and put away.
My family’s kitchen:
We compost. We use cloth napkins and cleaning cloths. We use reusable produce bags. I like the ones from Flip and Tumble (zero affiliation) because they are big and I can use also them for bulk bin items as tiny as quinoa and chia seeds. We avoid wax paper, parchment and foil, but I confess, they are used on very rare occasions. Eliminating those completely is a goal I’m working towards.
I’m all for reducing paper waste, but this: “The average person uses 2,400 – 3,000 paper towels at work, in a given year.” Cannot be right.
The Math: 2400-3000 = is an average of 2700 paper towels. So, in a year, if the average person works 260 days (i.e. a 5-day work week) and an average of 8 hours per day, they will use 1.3 paper towels per hour?!?
1.3 paper towels x 8 hour day x 260 working days/year = 2704 paper towels
That can’t be right.
The stat came from People Towels, and it actually does make sense. For example, most people take a trip to the bathroom every few hours and they may use 2-3 paper towels to dry their hands each time. Then there’s lunch; one to wipe your face, maybe one to wipe the table or desk and likely 2-3 more after you wash your hands. It’s very easy for one person to go through 10.4 paper towels in a work day.
I need to make the change to towels…. it’s on the list … with all glass, no plastic in my kitchen (work in progress).
I liked People Towels on FB
I take cloth napkins with me (wherever I go with) my breakfast and lunch bags, with my food packed in glass containers (so heavy!). I reuse any ziploc bags I have, and I take other peoples’ ziploc bags that they are going to throw away. I sometimes use plastic bags for produce at the store, but I put them back in my cloth shopping bag and then I can reuse them for more produce! I belong to two local CSAs (it’s scary, I know) and look forward to the day I can grow my own–maybe starting with container gardening next year? If I ever get food out, I always bring the plastic or aluminum container home to recycle, and the plastic utensils if there are any. I guess I sound a little OCD about this? Meghan, I love your towels on the line? What kind are they/ The People Towels look great, too!
Meghan, you have inspired me to make my own cloth napkins. We go through SO MANY paper towels (I’m hanging my head in shame), but today I went out and bought some fabric remnants and will be sewing my own napkins within the next few days. I’m also going to be sewing my own cloth diapers for my baby that’s coming soon. My husband is not on board with the cloth diapers, but I think I’ve convinced him to at least be open minded about it.
Anyway, aside from the paper towel thing, our kitchen is pretty eco-friendly. I am vegan, so that means my kitchen is completely vegan. My husband and daughter do have dairy on rare occasion, but that is only outside of the house. I also make my own dishwasher detergent and we run the dishwasher on the “eco” setting to save energy. And, I take all of my own cloth bags to the farmer’s market and grocery store with me. When I buy strawberries or something that comes in a basket (or bound with a rubber band), I save them and take them back to the farmer the next week.
I should have done this a long time ago. Doh!
Thanks for showing me the way.
This is really inspirational, particularly in hearing your intention to set up your business so eco-consciously from the get-go. I wish more companies (especially restaurants) would take the initiative to get rid of all the paper waste (or at least cut down where they can). Next up – the elimination of Styrofoam entirely!!! (but that’s a whole different round of chatterings).
I agree with others that buying locally from Farmers Markets, CSAs and the like as much as possible and bringing your own bags/reusable containers in the process is a terrific way to keep the kitchen green in more ways than one (and keep plastic residue rubbed off on food to a minimum). Glad to see so many great tips shared above.
I’ve added People Towels to my Twitter since they’ve got a lot of important information to share too.
Cheers!
Your picture is so reminiscent and beautiful. I would love this. I’m asking the Universe for this right now. Our first baby is on the way, and it’s leaving me so much more connected to the cycles. I don’t need to kill trees to feed my family!
hi…i love the idea of a paperless kitchen….i’m not there but i have given up paper towels and am working on napkins and here is my suggestion for a baggie solution…i am obsessed with recyling tee shirts…i made a stack of little “tee-baggies”(ha) and keep them to use for cookies, chips and sandwiches in lunch boxes and picnic baskets…you can get fancy and make draw string bags, but i usually just tie a little tee-tie (a strip of tee that has been pulled into a little cord) and go…works great…just toss them into your wash load and you are good to go…thanks for the chance to win!
I love my cloth napkins and even bring them to work.
I travel with mine too.
Following up on no bags for produce, those lovely collapsible cloth baskets would be wonderful for that purpose
They sure would!
I have not bought paper towels for 2 years or so. my husbands grandmother gave me some lovely cloth napkins and I have used them ever since. I love it! I will never buy a roll of paper towels again.
I too have a paper-free kitchen! We have many little dish towels and they work so much better than paper anyway.
I ‘green up’ my kitchen by using only a vinegar/water/mild soap mixture to clean, I’m paper-free, it’s a vegan kitchen, and I buy mostly organic!
Samers!
Great to hear about other people making the switch to cloth towels! I use mostly dishrags but do use paper towels for meat drippings or a spill that has broken glass in it.
One of the big things I’m doing right now is getting as much plastic out of my kitchen as is reasonably possible. I bought a bunch of latch-lid glass jars (again, an initial investment) to keep my dry goods such as beans, rice, and nuts in. I’m in the process of sewing some cloth bags out of thrifted pillowcases to use as bags to transport the dry goods home instead of the plastic bags from the store. I’ve really been enjoying the challenge of having as little plastic in my kitchen as I can!
That’s a tough one but like the paper- once it’s gone you can’t use it anymore.
I am the same- no paper and no dryer in my house. Our spare bathroom is my “dryer”. I use the shower rod as a drying rack plus lots of those hangers with the clips on them. Obviously I should probably just move somewhere warm and have the benefit of the sun that makes me so happy and it drying my clothes outside! I know all the hanging clothes looks messy when people come over but it makes me feel good to save that energy. And although its a lot more work for me it keeps me more active. I also am an avid glass jar collector, anything I buy that comes in a jar (which isn’t much since most of my food is perishable) I keep the jars and reuse them to freeze foods and stores bulk items. It works out well! And they look cute.
My dryer is a large drying wrack that I wheel over to sit under my fan. Dry clothes overnight.
[...] contact Making Love in the Kitchen: The Blog « A Paper Free Kitchen [...]
I compost, use rags or hand towels or cloth napkins instead of paper towels, reuse containers, and use a vinegar/EO solution for cleaning every surface.
What is EO in this context?
EO=essential oil
Ah! Thanks.
Okay, and I’m following you and People Towels on Twitter and I’ve liked both of your fan pages. Woohoo!
Save all vegetable scraps, fading herbs, free range chicken bones, etc. in the freezer to make stock. Then use it for soups, cooking grains, steaming vegetables, etc. It adds great flavor and a lot more nutrition than just water. Bone broths in particular are full of important nutrients.
I do that to- but without the bones as I tend not to have bones laying about.
I’d love to more of an eco friendly kitchen. I do as much as I can to recycle or reuse materials and containers but would love to start composting so I can use all my scraps!
I would too. Not ready to have a worm box inside though
Garden Jane sometimes runs worm composting workshops – it’s a good way to get started with worms.
I want to get started with worms- I just don’t want them in my house.
Fan of your awesome Facebook page
Follow you on Twitter
I’ve been wanting People Towels since I saw them at the Green Festival. I have a dryer but have not used it in over a year. I dry everything on a wooden drying rack. I’m slowly working on eliminating plastic from the kitchen (and elsewhere). I use glass to store food & take my lunch to work in a stainless steel tiffin. Luckily I live in a city that has compost bins. I hardly put anything in the trash anymore.
i also follow you on twitter
i love that you have a paper free kitchen! i’m embarassed to say that I’m one of those people that definitely overuse paper towels and sometimes without even realizing it. i think having cute towels around is a great way to make the transition!
i would love to have a paper free kitchen also. i am always collecing items for recycyling .
I love my paper-free kitchen (but it drives both my MIL and my mom crazy!
)! Inexpensive washcloths are great for most things (including table napkins) and flat cloth ‘diapers’ are for the big spills.
Three more tips I have:
1) I keep a shaker of baking soda under or next to the sink…it helps me scrub anything (pans, counters, sink, cooktop, etc.) and a baking soda-water paste can be left on stubborn, cooked on foods for a while — works like magic!!*
2) I use the scrapers from pampered chef…you can buy them separately, but they come with the stoneware – scrape pans, counters, cooktop, etc. – great edges and won’t scratch anything*
3) with children I find it easier to store things in non-breakable stainless versus glass, but it’s easier to ‘loose’ things int he fridge…use a sharpie and write on the stainless to label it before sticking it in the fridge (it’ll wash right off) (I found relatively inexpensive stainless containers at an Indian grocer in town)
*these are especially good for people who avoid non-stick and strong chemicals…ie those of us not afraid of using some elbow grease
And I second the spray bottle of white vinegar (with or without essential oils) for all purpose cleaning. I also second the stock and composting…it’s amazing how many veggie/garden scraps our family or four makes!! Speaking of gardening, square-foot gardening is organic, easy, and can be done is a small space.
and I ‘liked’ you on FB
You may laugh at this one, but get a dog! I live in an apartment with no green bin program and nowhere to compost. My dog eats most of my veggie ends and peelings (though that is certainly not all she gets)!
Not only did my pup make my kitchen greener, she made me improve my eating habits. I feed her an entirely raw food diet and it dawned on me that I was feeding my dog better than myself, so I have upped my raw veggie intake considerably. Plus I walk more now, go to parks and the beach (off-season) more. And she can lift my mood better than chocolate – and that is saying a lot!
[...] Fall classes are filling up quickly. Don’t miss out on the class of your choice. Register early to make sure you get in on the goodness. And don’t miss this week’s People Towels Giveaway! [...]
I am following on twitter, liked you on facebook, and I have left a comment! Great topic!
Thanks for joining the fun Colleen
[...] Fall classes are filling up quickly. Don’t miss out on the class of your choice. Register early to make sure you get in on the goodness. And don’t miss this week’s People Towels Giveaway! [...]
Thanks Meghan for the giveaway!!!
As for greening my kitchen..I only use organic cleaning agents..anything from vinegar and Baking Soda to Seventh Generation. I also compost all my veggie scraps and that way I don’t even need to put out garbage every week. I also reuse plastic produce bags for the next shopping trip.
I’m a fan on your facebook page!
I “liked” your facebook page.
We use cloth napkins rather than paper towels and I dry my clothes on wooden drying racks…saves energy and makes the clothes last longer.
I “liked” people towels facebook page.
[...] Fall classes are filling up quickly. Don’t miss out on the class of your choice. Register early to make sure you get in on the goodness. And don’t miss this week’s People Towels Giveaway! [...]
I posted on the FB page, but wanted to add over here that I grow my own vegetables. My next jobs are going to be to compost again(we used to in our house, but haven’t started in our townhome) and start switching out the flying pans. All the saucepans are stainless steel, but I haven’t managed to get the knack of fry pans without a non stick surface.
I’m following on twitter and am following People Towels on Twitter.
I’ve also posted on the FB page.
I would love to try this product! I’ve been looking for something similar for so long.
I friended them and you on twitter
Thanks for such a great giveaway!
They’re fantastic!
I try to multitask whenever I have to use the big oven, use my toaster oven most of the time, turn my electric burners off a few minutes before my food is totally done and just use residual heat, use castille soap for dishes and hands, try not to waste food, and use biodegradable natural sponges. I’m almost weaned from paper towels, though I admit I keep a roll around for when the cat pukes. Eventually I’ll get over that one.
Great ideas Jennifer.
ooOOOoo I just checked the website and I love these towels! I use a vinegar and lemon essential oil solution to clean surfaces and baking soda for tougher stains instead of toxic cleaners.
Hope I’m not too late to get into the Paper People giveaway! My best and longest going tip (been doing this for…hmmm, almost 20 years? And I’m not that old, really!) is that I never use plastic bags when buying produce, nor when storing them. Everything just rolls around on the conveyor belts when I go to the grocery (though those trips are few and far between during my CSA and market summers), and at home I have washable mesh bags to store things that I need them for, or I use reusable containers for things such as cut onions.
Megan, I make my own cleaners, too, and add essential oils to change the scent to my mood. Homemade laundry detergent, as well…nothing has ever worked better to get the grime out.