Took the black sack up to the bin tonight. It contains 6 weeks’ worth of mucky paper towels and not a lot else. Said paper towels had been used to mop up whatever spillages etc around the home; clean the woodburner glass panel… that sort of thing.
I’ve now vowed not to buy any more… once the last 10 rolls are gone. Hoping to save a fortune - mmm perhaps not that much, but it does seem daft to buy paper just to throw away… and let it end up in the ground.
I’m cutting up old tea-towels to use instead - I seem to recall Mum did that sort of thing, way back when…
OH is a little worried that I will start a similar economy/environmental drive with the toilet tissue…
Stella, you could burn the paper towels or put them on your compost heap. I burn all bits of paper - in the winter it helps to get the wood burning stove going and in the summer a weekly burn up keeps any frelons/bees etc from making a nest in the chimney.
I have a tiny compost heap which could not possibly accept the paper towels. Must confess I had not thought of burning them but it would very much depend what they had been used for previously.
Having had one chimney fire, I am very careful what I do and don’t use. Kindling lights the fire and logs keep it going.
I’m determined to cut back - waste nothing and pay less - yippee.
@Joyce_Hartley you light your fire weekly in summer? we would die of heatstroke…
Paper hankies (kleenex) are now banned as well. I’ve found some lovely white linen ones from the good old days and shall use them in future. OH has never used kleenex tissues so he is feeling very superior…
Sorry you misunderstood my posting, Stella, I’ll try and make it a little clearer. In the summer I put any bits of paper collected during the week into the wood burning stove and set fire to them. The paper quickly burns up and the fire goes out but the smoke acts as a deterrent to any frelons/bees etc who may be considering moving into the chimney. (This was actually advised by the pompiers many years ago.). Even though I live further north than you do, it is still far too hot in the summer to light a ‘proper’ fire weekly and no doubt we too would die of heatstroke!
I understand the smoke aspect if you risk frelons/bees - but there is a high risk of smouldering bits of paper escaping up the chimney and that is a great no-no in our area.
Our paper goes in the yellow sacks for recycling. It is only the tissues and essuie tout that give a problem/challenge which is why I am doing away with them.
With reference to compost heaps, I do as my dad did, dig a trench in the garden and put in all vegatable waste and plant clippings, even tissues,if plants are big chop them up with a spade.
Once quite full recover with soil, it breaks down over several months, the worms are straight into it. But don’t put in woody stems etc.
I really like microfibre cloths…(my sister in Canada sent me some antibacterial ones years ago to try out)
I’ve got them scattered all around the place…different colours for kitchen/bathroom/floors/glass etc…(several unused ones on hand for rescuing birds…and the odd bat…!)
I don’t have a compost heap here yet but have a five foot “no man’s land” in my back garden in between my “dog panel fencing” that keep my Collies safe from running into/under electric fencing on neighbouring farm land…where I throw vegetable scraps for whatever creatures fancy them…
In uk we had a wormery from wiggly wigglers for any kitchen waste/paper towels/egg shells etc…it worked a treat…
Here I do still buy a 3 pack of kitchen roll probably once a month but if I really think about it it’s probably more from force of habit…feed Collies raw food…wash hands and dry hands with paper towels…wipe down any surface with paper towels that may have come into contact with raw chicken/green tripe/rabbit/liver etc…
Thinking on it…
Edited to add wiggly wigglers wormery…(ours was a previous edition)…I guess there must be similar here for when space for a compost heap is limited…???
When we went to the Centre for Alternative Technology (Machynlleth) they recommended putting newspaper torn into strips into the compost.
If you buy unbleached paper towels they can go into your compost.
Have a shopping list and stick to it.
Menu plan for the week ahead.
I’m sure that everyone will be pleased to learn that used disposable nappies/incontinence protection can be recycled and should not be put in the black sacks (not in our area anyway).
Seems they are recycled into pillows, duvets and all sorts of goodies…
After hearing that… I decided we would not be looking to replace any such items… for a very long time…
Hi Stella
I am old enough (just!) to remember a time before we had kitchen paper towels- what did we do then? Were we less aware of bugs/possibly more resistant ? In my head, they are lumped together in time with the no deposit bottle launched by Schh…you know who, which I suspect may be seen as the beginning of the rot setting in.
(BTW anyone remember buying wine in France in deposit bottles with a crown cap? Where did that idea go?)
Nothing as glamorous as that I’m afraid but I do remember as a child the “Corona Man” coming round in his van to deliver fizzy drinks…you’d get money back for returning the glass bottles. So recycling even in those days, can’t be bad!
This was a dirty word in our household.
I’ll explain why…
Mum and dad took my brother and I out visiting friends in Kent. They offered us all drinks. Everyone had tea or coffee apart from my brother who was too little, so they gave him ginger beer not realising it contained alcohol.
As you can imagine within a few minutes my little brother was acting very strangely - Mum and dad were not happy, very embarrassing all round especially as years later my brother enjoyed telling all his mates about it.
Goodness knows what social services would have made of it today!!
Our ginger beer was made from a yeast plant which was handed from neighbour to neighbour… it was delicious and never classed as alcoholic.
However, I do recall my Gran being horrified (possibly 5 years later) when she noticed the cider she and I enjoyed so much - did contain a small amount of alcohol.
Hoping to save a fortune - mmm perhaps not that much, but it does seem daft to buy paper just to throw away… and let it end up in the ground. 
