Paper Towel Recycling

[gungatim]

As a general rule I think it's just good to reuse whatever you can and try not to overuse. How can anyone think this is a bad thing? No one looks back on the native Americans and thinks they were stupid for "using the whole buffalo". Yet people who exhibit such behavior nowadays are regularly ridiculed as hippie-tree-huggers. What gives?

Shouldn't we, again as a general rule, encourage using less rather than using more? We can't save resources all the time but might as well do so where we can, no harm in that. True, there's not a paper shortage, but that's not the point. What about the pollution created in manufacturing paper towel, the plastic it comes wrapped in, the fuel burned in transporting it? Shouldn't we try to reduce that even if that reduction is minimal? And what about the added benefits of trees - namely their absorption of CO2 and production of O2 or the fact that they provide a habitat for creatures and help create a symbiotic ecosystem? I for one love nature and wish there was a whole hell lot more of it (maybe I'm just tired of living in this damn concrete jungle).

And you're totally right about the TV thing and IMO that actually bolsters the argument that you should conserve paper towels (or anything else). The idea that because you are wasteful in one area means you should also be wasteful in another is ridiculous. Personally, I prefer to conserve where I can and hopefully that makes up a little for some of the other times which I can't or don't want to. For example I use biodegradable engine oil for my daily driver which gets pretty good gas mileage, yet I regularly burn up tons of fuel, rubber, oil...etc when I take my other car to the race track. I don't really see the racing as a reason why I should also drive a car that gets 8 mpg. My mentality is that you can have your cake and eat it too

Sorry for the rant

**EDIT**
Just so its blatantly clear, I'm not looking to argue, just voicing my opinion. Also not trying to force my opinion on anyone else. We're all adults here and we all have opinions and I'm just trying to explain mine and show that for me it's all or none, like anything there's usually compromise involved.

I get what you're saying, not wanting to argue either, and I'm actually all for reusing when possible and the cost/benefit is there. It just gets under my skin a bit when people chastize the little things like throwing out used food packaging but then turn around and change out their carpet and appliances etc. every couple years. It's all a matter of perspective. I'd rather drive my car for 15 yrs. or fix my broken appliances instead of buying new in return for not having to reuse paper towels and sort my garbage : )

 

[mrodgers]

Do you wait all day to flush your toilet so you only flush it once, just to save water?? If not, then you have zero right to be scolding anyone about how many paper towels they use....

Well, if you really want to know my sanitation habits, here you are. If I take a dump, I flush. If I am not expecting visitors or I know I will be home alone for a while, I'll piss several times before flushing. However, If I'm outside I just piss and don't worry about what happens.

If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.

Beat me too it with the yellow mellow, brown flush it down. We don't do it to conserve water, we do it because we have too small of a septic tank for a family of 4. For conservation I figure it comes up out of the ground, through my plumbing, out into the leach field and back through the ground again anyways.

Just be aware that someday soon, businesses will start enforcing policies where you must provide your own paper towels or toilet paper or return the used ones to a designated area for supervised processing to avoid employees taking said goods for their own personal use and suing if they don't wipe as well as new ones.

That entire second paragraph was satirical, for those who can't tell.

Not sure if I'd take that as satirical. I can definitely see businesses going this route in the future, or at least giving it the thought.

I'm doing it to save money, not the earth. My wife pushes recycling heavily on me so I know how overbearing it can be. I just do this since I have to use the towels anyway, and the trash can in the mens room is typically full. I see some people use 2 or 3 towels just to dry their hands, lol. These are pretty thick c-fold towels. Not those thin ones that you need multiple ones just to get dry.

We just have the absorbent-as-a-brick rolls of brown paper towels at work. I have my own paper towels in the garage, but they tend to get tossed somewhere and reused often until they are dirty enough to toss. Not many paper towels are used in the house.

 

[angrystroker]

Lots of paper towel experts I never knew existed, maybe there is an app to find what bathrooms have the best of brand.

 

[David Paul]

OP, your not nuts, I do the same. I'm also with the "if it's yellow" crowd. For breakfast my wife will often provide me with a high quality napkin while having cereal or toast with lots of butter. After wiping my hands when finished (I'm not that neat) I don't like the thought of throwing away the very lightly used napkin. I have a small basket I'll put these napkins in, use them as others have said for wiping down tools, spils, etc.
Now saving used snot rags rags is just wrong.......I know he was kidding........I hope.

 

[QwikKotaTx]

This odd behavior may possibly linked to my summer job when I was 13 in the Virgin Islands. I worked for a Jeweler who had me melting down gold coins to make castings or pendants after running the plates through a set of rollers. Cool job for a kid. I also had to clean things, remove rust, sweep the floor etc. He would not let anything go in the trash. He had a box for floor sweepings and a huge box for paper towels. Why? GOLD. He would send all of it off to be burnt/melted down and a little blob of gold would come back. I can't recall how much exactly because the boxes didn't fill up very fast. This is possibly where my brain makes sense of my actions.

 

[johninct]

When I grease my backhoe I use maybe 10-20 paper towels. I can't leave excess grease on it because my garage is VERY tight where I store it and walking by, I would get grease on my cloths because I have to squeeze through. Used towels work fine.

 

[sberry]

I re use some from handwash, is almost compulsive to grab a hew one. I use them for grease and oil too. I would be lost without paper towels and 12 oz styro cups from Sams. We burn most of it too but it makes it easy to stay clean. So much cheaper and easier to wipe up a mess. Its just part of the consumable and cheap really. Hard to wash a cup for 2.5 cents and a paper towel is a penny and about 50% of the cups get used 2x.

 

[sberry]

Not many paper towels are used in the house

I go to my MIL I take a roll, I cant do anything without them but on the upside I am a clean mechanic because of it. I dont have grease on me and don't spread it. I have 2 sinks on the shop floor, wash before during and after.

 

[AMCguy]

I have three cans in my garage, one for metal, one for general trash and one for used paper towels only. Once a paper towel has been well used, it goes in there. For wiping off grease *******, checking oil etc. out they come again.

I have had bad spills and been out of paper towel. That used stuff has come in very handy.

 

[kingchevy]

Occasionally I will catch my wife stuffing a hardly used tissue back in the box, I grab it, throw it out, and ten more just for principle.

 

[finn]

I reuse mine for the most part. Ultimately they get used as fire starters in the woodburner.

I have noticed an accelerating movement towards air driers in commercial establishments.

 

[CNGsaves]

I'm doing it to save money, not the earth. My wife pushes recycling heavily on me so I know how overbearing it can be. I just do this since I have to use the towels anyway, and the trash can in the mens room is typically full. I see some people use 2 or 3 towels just to dry their hands, lol. These are pretty thick c-fold towels. Not those thin ones that you need multiple ones just to get dry.

OP this is just smart way to save money as those C-fold paper towels are so thick.

Was at Social Security office last year and dayuuuuum, their C-fold paper towels are THICK, THICK, THICK !! As I was using them, I thought the same thing that these would make great oil cleanup wipes in garage (even "used"). A trashbag full of those, would be equivalent to buying bunch of rolls of Bounty paper towels.

+1 to make sure no one at work thinks you're taking new stuff.

 

[404]

The truth about my re use of Mostly Natural Protein ™ enriched paper towels will have to remain a mystery. However, do you think the 2 guys in the pic let any of that go to waste? I think not! Yumyum.

I do re use lots of stuff, old cloths for rags, tin cans for paint buckets, fasteners, lots and lots of stuff.

For me it is not about lack of trees or loving Gaia, but about not having to go buy more stuff when I have something already I can use. I figure the time going shopping (plus driving there and back) and money spent can be better used for something else.

It's real easy to spend money, but a bit harder to make it. Then keep in mind you buy things with after tax dollars, but get paid with before tax dollars.

Look at your tax brackets, think of all the other taxes on everything, think about how much money is left. Spend accordingly.

 

[CCer]

I dry my hands, stuff the towel in my pocket. When I get back to the shop, I pull it out of my pocket, lay it down to dry. Re-use it again at a later time, for any clean-up. Doesn't take any more time, recycles the towel.

 

[rburke65]

Air hand dryers were suppose to be so economical and stop the spread of "kooties". Now 'they' say all it does is blow the germs all over! Somebody make up their mind!

 

[RegeSullivan]

Everybody draws the line at a different level. My wife will leave the water run while brushing her teeth, to me that seems wasteful. My brother collects the water off the AC condenser in the summer and the condensate from the HE furnace in the winter. Dumps it in the toilet tank. Sometimes a couple times a day to save a few pennies on water. To me that seems firetruckin nutz.

I am guilty of reusing paper towels in the shop. I wash my hands often and since I am the only one there I drape it over the sink and use it a few more times. It is usually dry enough by the time I need it again. I'm not really conservative so much but it saves me a couple of trips the the trash.

 

[Kev442]

For my job, I visit the clients site to service their equipment. I carry both regular and blue towels with me, but sometimes run out or forget. That is secondary to the fact that I get my hands dirty and the equipment always needs cleaning. I always bring the damp towels back from the bathroom to wipe the equipment down or to wipe my hands again. I will often have to do this four times during the service call, so double use of the towels adds up.

I have learned to toss the last set of damp towels into my kit for two reasons. I always have to wipe something down at the beginning of a service call and you would not believe the amount of companies with neither soap or towels in their bathroom, and I'm not talking about hand blowers instead. Gross city.

In the old days we had a spot on the service billing to charge 2.50 for cleaning supplies, it is no longer there, so I guess I'm saving someone 2.50 by doing it. It mainly saves me a ton of time.