Paper towels and baking sheets or more washing up?

Question

I wanted to have an informed opinion on this: I wonder if it is more environmentally friendly to use cloth towels, china dinnerware and flour/grease my baking trays, OR to use paper towels and disposable baking sheets?

I always thought washing and re-using was better than using disposable and generating waste, but my husband says that washing cloths or utensils uses up more water and energy.

What do you think?

Answer 1

your husband is right...but it's a little friendlier than stuffing more trash into the dumpsters. try using cold waters and add little soap as you can. enough to get the job done...not lesser because it will be unhealthy...try to bathe less..wear your clothes longer...collect rainwaters....grow your own vegetables...raises chickens...

Answer 2

chinaware if carefully used and not broken,is far better than say in the plastic alternative,but on the other hand if a clumsy person breaks this chinaware prematurely,the energy and costs in producing this makes it not as environmentally friendly as the paper or plastic alternative.

also when you do your washing up do you use detergents as these contain  a lot of phosphates ,which is released into the system,this is compounded if you are you using a electric dishwashing machine .paper products come generally from sustainably manage forest,and are easily recyclable.

Answer 3

I think I have way to many important things to think about than whether I can have any affect at all on this enormous globe by choosing paper towels or a cloth.

Answer 4

Definitely better to wash and reuse in all cases.

Disposable paper and plastic factories need to use way more water and energy to make the packaging they produce than you will washing things up.

Paper is a very water intensive product to manufacture, right back to the logging of the forest itself. When a forest is logged, initially after the rain, soil can be washed into rivers in large volumes changing their ecology and the water quality and THEN when the trees are regrowing they use up to 50% more water than the old trees so much less water flows into catchments.

The trees are cut down and transported by machines that use fossil fuels, then cut into tiny fibres in factories (that use more fossil fuels) that are soaked and shaped by tons of water to make the paper. Even recycled paper uses gallons of water (much less than non-recycled but still an impact) because it needs to be washed, soaked and reshaped. Then they're transported again to the shop where you buy it (by vehicles running on fossil fuels that pollute). Some of the paper products you buy might have been cut on the other side of the earth too!

If you are washing your reusable items along with other utensils/cloths there is no way you could use more water and energy than this process.

Also you are creating less waste. Waste has water and energy issues too - landfill sites can leach toxins into groundwater and local rivers as the waste breaks down. And the waste needs to again be collected and transported by vehicles.

So you can tell your husband that you are right! Reusing is always better.

Answer 5

use anything you want, we can make plenty more

Answer 6

I always use disposable towels, pans, cups, plates, and silverware because I am too lazy to wash dishes.