I am human, and like many of us, I make messes.
Lots of them.
Spilled milk, broken eggs, wet surfaces after processing organic materials, moist areas after hygiene activities, soiled cooking utensils and crusty dishes and cups all feature prominently in my assortment of surfaces requiring cleansing on a regular basis.
I even occasionally need to dry myself off after washing my hands or getting grease/oil soluble contaminants on me.
For all of the above reasons, I have been reaching over to a combination of paper towels, cloth towels, abrasive melamine sponges and plastic bristle brushes for decades to meet my cleaning needs, and I have often wondered whether I could potentially replace the environmentally questionable melamine sponges (that constantly degrade into small particles of plastic that enter our sewer systems and, likely, land in the ocean or sediments in our lakes, rivers and streams) and single use paper towels with something that would be easier on the environment.
I long ago abandoned the use of the standard dish sponge in favor of a plastic bristle brush in order to clean dishes and kitchen surfaces due to the tendency for sponges to harbor microbes, start to smell and eventually become unusable, but I still use paper towels quite often to do things that I wouldn't want to subject my cloth kitchen towels to: soaking up milk and oil, wrapping sandwiches, cleaning the inside of the microwave or the backs of appliances, or getting into nooks and crannies that might have organic material lodged into them (cobwebs, food bits, oil/grease, etc). As disposable items, paper towels represent little to no risk of cross contamination and offer supreme convenience at minimal cost.
I primarily use my cloth kitchen towels to dry clean hands and clean dishes, or brush crumbs out of dry bowls.
My melamine sponges (I use the Mr Clean Magic Eraser brand, but you can use any type) come into play in the kitchen and bathroom when my normal plastic scrubber hasn't managed to remove every bit of the gunk in the bathtub, shower or sink. I can use a multipurpose cleaner of choice (which is usually laundry or dish detergent liberally diluted in water) to help eat into the fats, oils, grease and proteins binding the gunk together and use moderate pressure and a few passes to get a silky smooth feeling surface that is back to it's original color. It takes more time than my standard plastic scrub brush since the contact footprint of a magic eraser is smaller and I need to apply more pressure, but the results can speak for themselves.
A new trend in home cleaning is the Swedish dishcloth; apparently these tools offer a compelling alternative to paper towels in home cleaning and are useful in dish washing, hand drying and the cleaning of small messes, with people apparently using them as direct substitutes for paper towels and rinsing them out or tossing them in the dishwasher to sterilize them. My primary concern when hearing about the widespread use of such tools would be the transmission of pathogens from person to person and source to source within the home.
While not specific to Swedish dishcloths, a statement from the Center for science in the public interest describes the results of a study that found household sponges and cloths often harbor coliform bacteria (normally present in fecal matter and the intestinal tracts of humans and other large mammals) and fungi in dangerous quantities, suggesting significant potential for the preparation of contaminated food and the sickening of individuals that consume items prepared in these home environments.
In addition, paper towel manufacturers are working to improve the sustainability of sourcing wood and other vegetable fiber to prepare paper towels, as described by Bounty in the linked site below.
In my case, I already have a pretty functional system and I don't want to create a closed loop in my cleaning routine, since I am already using more durable agents for tasks that I am comfortable having a durable tool for and I don't need to reuse cloths or towels for the tasks that I am using paper towels for.
Do you use paper towels for anything that you would use a Swedish dish cloth for? Would you want to use a reusable item for cleaning up, say, spilt milk or broken eggs if there was an easy way to clean it, or would you prefer to simply discard the tool along with the organic material/bacterial load and be done with it?
Sources and Useful links:
Sustainable Paper Towels - A Promise To Sustainability | Bounty (bountytowels.com)
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