Why Not? How To Go Paper Towel-Less in the Kitchen

It's really not as hard as you might imagine. And just think: You don't have to find somewhere to install a paper towel holder. We've got some tips, plus a few questions for you, below...

Apartment Therapy has touched on this before, writing about a paper towel-less life and giving ten alternatives for paper towels.

We eliminated them from our kitchen gradually, almost without noticing. It was like we had a roll that just stuck around and stuck around... until we realized we'd had it for several months and still hadn't used it up. And we weren't buying recycled paper towels, either (ew, too flimsy). We were buying thick, plush Viva towels. So cutting them out felt like a small victory in greening our home.

Here are some top uses for paper towels and some alternative ideas:

• Napkins. We can't tell you how many people we know still fold up a paper towel as a napkin. Buy some cloth napkins! Hey, buy some cheap hand towels from IKEA and use them as napkins! You don't have to wash them every time you use them, in case you fear laundry. And they are so much more pleasant to use.

• Wiping down the counters. Sometimes paper towels just seemed more sanitary than a sponge for cleaning counters or a glass surface. But you know what? We got over it. We use these long-lasting sponges for everything- the counters, the fridge, the stove top... everything. A washable microfiber cloth is also a great thing to have on hand for wiping down surfaces or cleaning up spills.

• Wrapping herbs. We frequently wrapped our herbs in a damp paper towel and put them in a plastic bag to keep them fresh. But a cloth towel works just as well. Or, store them in a glass of water with a plastic bag over the top.

• Patting dry raw chicken or other meat. This is a tough one. If you need to pat down a chicken, you probably want to toss that towel. We're torn. We have used a dish cloth and then immediately thrown it in the washing machine, but that's not always feasible. You may not have a washing machine in your apartment, in which case you've got a chicken-juiced towel in your laundry hamper. There's always the option of blow-drying your chicken. Or simply allowing it to dry out, uncovered, in the fridge for a while. Anyone else have some tips?

• Draining bacon. Here's another without a clear solution. It's nice to have a soft bed of paper towels for absorbing grease when you fry something, whether it's bacon, sausage, or potatoes. Depending on how often you fry, you could keep some paper towels on hand for just this purpose. Another option would be to place the bacon on a cookie/baking rack over a sheet pan. Most of the grease will drip down.

Those are a few of the major kitchen uses we thought of. What others do you have? How are you using fewer paper towels in your kitchen?

(Image: Flickr member Seth Tisue, licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (37)

Putting some newspaper on a baking sheet topped by an upside down cooling rack wicks away oil quick for bacon or any fried food instead of using paper towels. Another tip shamelessly taken from Alton Brown.

http://twicebuzzed.blogspot.com

i was about to make the exact same suggestion!

Pity I don't get the paper, then.

I haven't used paper towels in a while (I ran out and it's been months and I still haven't bought more) but I miss them for bacon and for cleaning up kitty uck. The paper napkins from takeout usually work for the latter, and I have used rags before but EW.

I have always wiped down the counters with a rag and then rinse it in the hottest water I can stand, wring it out and let it dry. Most germs die in a dry environment so I keep it around until it starts to smell funny, then into the laundry with it.

i have never understood how newspaper is condiered a clean place to put your food. It icks me out. At least the rack is between the bacon and the paper here.

Honestly, I still need a paper towel every once and a while. Specifically for picking up cat puke. I think I will keep them for that. I have only used 1.25 rolls since august.

We primarily use kitchen towels and cloth napkins, but we have paper towels around for patting meat and, like chusmabilly, cleaning up cat puke.

I use large rags on my Swiffer, use non-toxic cleaning products, etc., but I'm not giving up the paper towels just yet.

I keep a roll around for bacon and dog ick, but they are used very sporadically. I bought a stack of bar mop towels to use as hand/dish drying towels. I use that day's not-usually-all-that-dirty towel with 409 spray (okay, I'm not super ecologically virtuous) to wipe down the counters, as the sponge leaves streaks on my black countertops, and I fret about contamination from the sponge. I save up and wash all my kitchen towels separately from the rest of the laundry, to avoid any cross-contamination. (no, not really as germ-phobic as that paragraph sounds.. but my countertops are really clean!)

i hardly buy rolls of paper towels. we do have a large quantity of paper napkins that has taken us months to go through. they weren't here i'd use t.p for the cat puke.
i have many dish towels for the kitchen, so i usually have a set running on clean and some in the hamper.

I just installed our paper towel holder in our bathroom because that's where we keep the cleaning supplies. That way, they aren't handy for kitchen use. We mainly use them for dog mess, which I don't plan to change. I can't actually think of another thing we use them for.

I don't see why this needs to be all or nothing. If there are a couple of odd uses for paper towels that are hard to eliminate (i.e., cat puke) then that doesn't lessen the benefit of all the other reductions. If you can eliminate 90% of your PT usage, then at that point there are probably better things to focus on than that last 10%.

Anyway, reducing our paper goods usage is on our todo list, but we haven't made much headway so far. The one area where I've mostly eliminated PT use is in microwaving; I used to use a sheet to cover bowls or plates when cooking. I've since switched to using a plate to cover the bowl, or a bowl to cover a plate. Works well.

Biggest behavioral change for us is for cleaning up mess; need to keep a nice pile of clean cloths around and just not care about messing one up and throwing it in the dirty pile. Same with cloth napkins...

Isn't the goal really balance? If you use a kitchen towel for one use such as drying chicken, the energy to wash that is also inefficient. So, if you use paper towels , sparingly (chicken/herbs), I think it is still smart. For the majority of my cleaning, I use the fantastic Chef Towels (like microfiber) that I found through a comment on this site.

you know what I would do, if you can't let go of paper towel. There are "pick a size" paper towels that are preforated into 1/3 of the regular paper towel size.
Instead of wasting an entire towel for something small, you tear off what you need. I think target brand sells them as well as the usual name brands.
I love those, Iv've never seen then sold as individual rolls. Maybe you can buy a 6 pack and that be your yearly paper towel purchase.
I usually just jack one from my momma when i go over.

Neilw, have you seen those plastic microwave stuff covers - They're bowl/deep plate shaped with vents and you store it in the microwave. I use it to cover almost everything i nuke. You can get them at target, the .99 or as i did, a child's horrible school fundraising catalog.

i'm w/ heather77. i use minimal paper towels (recycled!) but am just not willing to give up for everything. blow-dry a chicken? no thanks.

I bring home from work the extra napkins that we get when we order lunch-sometimes they send way too many. I keep those in a drawer and use them instead of paper towels.

I haven't gone paper-towel-less, but we don't use many in the kitchen. Pretty much just for draining things like bacon. We have the kind that's perforated on the "half sheet" too, so it's easy to get a smaller piece if that's all you need. One roll lasts months and months. For cleaning tasks, we use our dish cloth (e.g. for counters) or a cleaning cloth (e.g. for floors) that I toss in the washer as necessary.

I use the cloth dish towels at Smart and Final for almost everything. The one role of PT is a last resort. I've been doing this for almost 10 years. I got the idea form Viana La Place's Unplugged 1996. There are so many great ideas in this cookbook.

Haha chusmabilly, I jack stuff from my mom's too.

I am slowly going paperless in the kitchen. I did have to dedicate a kitchen towel to my cast iron skillet (I used paper towels to wipe it down with oil, and placed one under it to store in the cabinet).

we've cut back on paper towel use and hadn't bought any for a while, but really missed them for a few things (as many have mentioned). the roommates were also not as committed so a roll reappeared.

I have to say, it's annoyed me a bit when people would comment on other posts about washing their cleaning rags-- things like "I just wipe down my bathroom every morning and toss the rag in the washer so I don't need paper!"-- because that is not really a possibility for most people. I stick with using rags for relatively non-icky cleaning, because I can't stand having gooey rags sitting around waiting for a load of laundry to be worth the energy and cost it takes to run the machine.

Yeah, for a few select jobs the paper towel is probably a more eco-choice. For instance, the mentioned puke clean up - few people have the wherewithal to clean that up and keep that rag for washing, so without paper towels you might end up throwing away a perfectly good rag or cloth.

My husband, unfortunately, isn't as careful with PT as I am. I have to keep it hidden or he'll use it to dry his hands after washing, even when there's a dishcloth hanging on the nearby stove!

Another good thing to keep in mind is that often paper towels are more reusable than you might suspect, especially the nicer brands. If someone *cough husband cough* uses them just to dry up water, then you can easily drape them on a rack, let it dry out, and it's as good as new.

Lightly used PTs used to clean windows and such can be rinsed out, dried, and stashed under the sink to be used for bad mess emergencies. (Just don't act like they're food safe after that!)

Some of these comments (including my own) are making me wonder why cats puke so much??!?

Chusmabilly is right about the pick-a-size paper towels. Those are the best.

we have been slowly phasing out paper towels at our house for awhile, but like everyone else with pets its never practical to not have a roll waiting for you. It sure does cut back. We have been going for months and months with a 2 roll pack of paper towels.

We have found if you buy the ones that tear into "half sheets" they seem to last much longer as you can use less if need be without the awkward trying to rip a full one in half which never turns out quite right.

I have found keeping a "clean" and "not so clean" dish towel in the kitchen keeps most of my needs met. Clean one for drying of clean freshly washed hands or dishes/utensils and a not so clean one to wipe up general spills and messes. For meat messes or other nasty contaminants I'll still use paper towels or if the cloth towel is dirty enough and needs changed anyway ill use it.

I got this really cool microwavable steamer basket for xmas that the directions have said is safe for bacon, the drippings just collect in the under compartment that would usually hold water for steaming. You can then just empty it out into a canister or jar for disposal. You still may need a single half paper towel sheet to dab off the bit of excess grease but it cuts down from a whole "bed".

Sometimes going green takes some practice. My favorite method for cleaning used to be dousing my counters with bleach and then cleaning up with expensive (i.e. lots of trees) paper towels. I know…I know.

The green cleaners were easier to adapt to. Getting rid of the paper towels took some work. First I changed to a greener paper towel (brown unbleached 7th gen). The simple fact that they are brown reminds me of the waste in a way the white bounty never did. Also, and lets be frank, they don't absorb as much and that made me want to use them less. I use a sponge or a kitchen towel far more frequently than I used to. The paper towels are used primarily for really dirty tasks (like raw chicken).

Also, Greenpeace has a new guide rating paper towels/toliet paper, etc. 7th gen and TJ's got high marks as being the least irresponsible choices.

I use a tea towel for bacon, (and deep fried chicken) My family has been doing that since I was little, so paper towels have never been an issue.

Most paper towel use has been phased out EXCEPT the cat puke. There is just something gaggingly horrific about picking that up with a cloth. I have also mastered a technique of wiping up cat puke with one piece of paper towel without it dripping out having to touch it.

I haven't bought paper towel for two years. I also don't have a cat to clean up puke after....

I keep a seperate bucket to toss rags into, that way I don't get ickyness on the rest of my laundry, and I wash that load on hot and with more detergent. I have a lot of rags so I'm not doing a load of like..2 things. Works fine for us.

I use an old dish towel for bacon and falafel. It's not pretty anymore but I don't use it for anything else so it's fine.

According to Alton Brown, it is completely safe to lay newsprint against your food, as the ink nowadays is made of soy.

I am a huge fan of the EcoLab ProForce yellow cloths sold in bulk at Sam's Club. I bought one pack of 25 about two years ago, use them for everything in the kitchen, and wash them regularly. No fabric softener though - that would be nasty if it touched food! They are still holding up like champs. Amazingly absorbent.

I live in a dessert, and any alternative to paper towel use means increased water usage. I often wonder how increased personal water use balances against corporate water use. We use old dishtowels as rags for cleaning up cat-puke, and I have a hand-held steam cleaner to clean the carpet following detritus duty. But this means more rinsing, more washing. I have never read anything definitive about which is the lesser evil. Is there any real data about this issue? I can't help but wonder if giving up paper towel use is meaningless.

I am now exceptionally glad that I do not own a cat.

you could eliminate the two situations this article found difficult to resolve (patting chicken and draining bacon) by not eating meat :)

Sure newspaper ink is made of soy, but how many people handle your newspaper before it reaches you?

I am all for elimiating paper towels, but would love some thoughts on creative reuses for paper towel holders. I have the absolute cutest red metal vingage paper towel holder mounted on the wall that I can't bear to take down!

Not sure if this would help some people, but I pour the excess bacon grease (or grease in general) into an empty can and then freeze the can to have it solidify. Once the can fills up, I throw it away. That definitely saves on paper used to sop up oils from the pan.

I use paper bags for draining bacon and the like. There are always a few lying around from when we get thai delivered or from the grocery if we forget our bags. I also use them to wrap gifts, packages, or as scrap paper.

For any of the above that don't seem to work the best with dish cloths because of sanitary reasons, wash the cloth in hot and soapy water and either run through the dishwasher if you have one, or pull out your steamer and steam the cloth on the stove top, then air dry.
For draining bacon and fried goodies, I always use newspaper or paper bags to drain them. They are very absorbent, and I always seem to have them on hand.

Sunshinedaydream, if you ever come back to read this and haven't repurposed your paper towel holder yet, you could use it to hang cloth towels or to hold cookie cutters, kitchen twine, or aluminum foil, or as a rack to dry homemade pasta; if you can move it out of your kitchen, it could be a nifty hanger for bracelets and necklaces, spools of ribbon, hats and mittens, drip-dry hand-wash, a hanging tote for some casual storage space, etc...

I'm in the camp of 'only use for very necessary things' like, as you say, patting/wiping raw meat stuff (although we eat very little meat so I'm not using PT much at all), and bacon grease, the occasional stinky mess, and the like. It takes me a LONG TIME to go thru a roll, so I'm happy about that at least. I'll probably never quit completely, but I'm satisfied that I've cut way back.

my mom has some cute dishtowels on etsy:

www.kav122.etsy.com

Drying chicken and other uncooked, rinsed meats: I use a clean dischloth, rinse it immediately in hot, sudsy water, hang to dry, then toss into my kitchen laundry basket.

Bacon is easy. Instead of frying, bake at 350F on a broiler pan. The fat drips through the rack into the pan, the bacon turns out as crispy as you like, depending on how long you leave it in the oven, and you don't need to drain it. Scrape the fat off and refrigerate or freeze for making gravy for biscuits, flavoring sauces or egg dishes.