I'm with you, there are just times that call for a disposable towel. I use the rolls with half sheets as a way to moderate my paper towel usage. As long as they are used sparingly, I don't think we should feel guilty.

Agreed Amy6404. Sometimes I just don't want to use a dishtowel to clean up a tomato sauce mess, or whatever the case may be. A roll of paper towel will last in our house for a couple of months. I think its reasonable :)

I can't remember the last time I used paper towels in my home, but I can see how they are useful as a tool in the kitchen.

Yes, you are uncool!
To be cool you should get paper towels that have prints on them 😏

I use paper towels like they are grown from trees. I buy mine in bulk at Costco when they have a sale on them. Typically the half sheets are my preference and like you I compost mine as well.

Do I feel quilty about it, hmmm... I little bit... Ok now I am over my guilt.

I use them. If I had a washer in my apartment it might be different, but I would have to maintain a hefty supply of towels for spills (and a large pile of soiled ones) if I didn't use paper at all.

Couldn't live without them..especially the half-sheets!

This is an easy one. Switch to recycled paper towels. Are they perfect? No, but a thousand times better than the bleached virgin paper that takes down forests and destroys habitat. Use the recycled paper towels for when you need them, and keep multiple bar towels on hand. Those things are great.

If we make exceptions ONLY for health and sanitary reasons, the planet will do fine.

I googled "diy re-usable paper towels" months ago, made a couple sets of these: http://www.callmekristin.com/diy-reusable-paper-towels, and have never looked back.

They were super easy to make. I altered her tutorial by making a more sturdy "paper towel tube" from pvc pipe.

I keep a used towel bin in my kitchen, and when I run out of towels, I just throw them in the washing machine.

I keep a roll of the half sheets in my kitchen. It lasts for months, but I find them very useful for draining bacon grease and such. I don't really want to wash greasy cloths with my laundry. I think it's okay sparingly - trees are a renewable resource.

Forests are clear cut for wood and meat. Not paper. I use a TON of paper towels, and don't feel guilty, because I know that they will plant more trees to grow for more paper. If you want to save trees, eat fewer cows.

I use them at home too! But I rinse them out and reuse them so 1 roll lasts me a long time. I don't think you should feel guilty!

As much as I try to use just regular kitchen rags, sometimes you really do need a paper towel. I swear by the Viva brand because they're almost cloth like. Since they're crazy durable I can rinse and reuse them when I do have to use paper instead of rags... I don't feel so guilty and I know my depression-era grandmother would be proud

I used some dampened ones to strain homemade yogurt yesterday... I hate washing cheesecloth.

I totally use paper towels! I use cloth towels and cloth napkins, but there's just no complete replacement for paper towels, in my opinion.

I haven't bought paper towels in a few years, but every time I have napkins from a drive through run or something (not often!) I use them for bacon. Otherwise, I use one of a handful of greasy dishtowels dedicated for that specific purpose. I think if we didn't have a washer & dryer in the house my approach would be a bit different (though I can't imagine those circumstances!). Before we went PTFree, we did opt for the 7th generation recycled towels, and definitely didn't go through a lot.

We've been considering trying out the handkerchief route to eliminate the average one box per year that we go through of Kleenex, but that's a whole different topic...

Moral of the story: there's always room for improvement! <3

@Lexia, I'm not sure where you get your information from but how long do you think it takes a tree to grow? It takes many years before a sapling can grow into a CO2 absorbing, habitable tree. Deforestation dredges up carbon, increasing global warming and ruining the soil. Logging roads lead poachers in to forests where endangered species are stolen. Cattle farming does take down forests, so do monocultures. So buy from agroforestry farms instead. Recycled paper is a must.

I use them too! I use them to clean up cat urine (oh the joys of having a spraying cat...), sometimes 2-3 times per day. No WAY am I using anything reusable for that. I'd run out of towels, plus it'd just gross me out.

Not sure where the idea came from that paper mills wipe out entire tracts of forests and never re-plant them, but here in southeastern VA the logging trucks are always busy and there are trees replanted all the time. Having spoken to several clients who are in the paper industry and/or the tree logging business, I have also learned that apparently we have so many trees grown in the US with the specific intent of being used for logging, that some Caribbean countries such as Haiti purchase them to use as a fuel source, whether as charcoal or wood I do not know. It is cheaper for them to this than buy oil. And a tree, no matter how small, is always doing its part as a carbon dioxide absorber. Maybe the other commenters are referring to rainforests such as the Amazon, but by not specifying this, it makes logging and paper mill communities in the US look totally irresponsible, and they are far from it. That said, we never use paper towels for anything in our house except really nasty things like pet accidents or some instances of cooking, like when frying is involved.

Paper towels are often a necessary evil. My compromise with myself is that I get GOOD paper towels (Viva are my favorite!). If the're super strong, I can rinse and reuse on messes that need it, I can squeeze water out of spinach, etc. Then into the compost they go.

You can only feel guilty about so much in life. Don't waste your time apologizing for paper towels! :D

I do about 50/50 with cloth towels and paper towels. When I'm cleaning up tomato or berry juice or grease messes I prefer to use paper towels. I don't have a washing machine. I thought about getting hardcore and hand washing and bleaching cloth towels in the sink, but the amount of effort that would take has stopped me from trying.

For years, I stopped buying paper towels. But I've come to the conclusion that sometimes they're just necessary (or necessary enough that I don't feel too guilty). I have a dog, and sometimes he does gross things that I just don't want to use a towel on. And I tried using a towel on tofu or to soak up grease, but it just ruins towel. So now, we buy a role every few months.

Yeah I should get into re-usable towels, but there are certain things like cleaning up after preparing chicken where I'd really just want to throw the damn thing out. You can always go 7th generation or something similar to make yourself feel a little better (cost a bit more too, so might be incentive to use more sparingly)

I keep a roll of paper towels in my kitchen but we use them so sparingly I haven't bought a new roll for years. I use paper towels to grease pans and drain fried food, which we don't eat often.

My big tip if you want to lean more heavily on cloth: keep the cloth rags handier than the paper towels. I keep my rags in the little tip-out cupboard in front of the sink and the paper towels are buried behind something in another cabinet. We are lazy people and the rags are easiest to grab! We use the same principle for tissues and handkerchiefs (we keep a box of tissues on hand for guests, but it's in the back of a closet and the hankies are stashed in several easy spots around the house).

i keep paper towels too, mostly for cat cleanup. i think using them sparingly for that kind of cleanup is a far better use of paper than the tons of wasted laser prints in offices every day.

I worked in a test kitchen for many years. I don't think twice about using too many paper towels. Tools of the trade.

I much prefer paper towels to those hideous Chux wipes, as I'm not sure how environmentally friendly those bright blue disposable cloths are. My used paper towels go in the compost bin or to my worm farm, so eventually they give me healthy soil!
Uncool? I think making great compost is really cool :D

Are you kidding?? I buy the big box of Bounty at Costco once every couple of months I go through so many. One of the most used items in my kitchen and I dont feel a stitch guilty about it. I conserve in so many other ways that I wont be losing sleep over this one.

I don't have a washing machine (though there are two washers/dryers in the entire apartment building I use though) but still use cloth linen towels for dish drying, terrycloth for hand drying, and I keep a roll of paper towel on hand, but don't use too often, usually.

Most of the time I use them for is patting raw meat/poultry dry, draining greasy foods, such as bacon etc, and most of the time, 2 rolls lasts me months.

There is a sanitary reason for paper towels, so be aware of that fact. Also, handkerchiefs aren't as sanitary as you think especially when you sneeze/blow into them while sick, just FYI.

Also, what about toilet paper? That's paper, so why feel guilty about using these others when you have to use toilet paper to wipe up after yourself when through with the throne?

I'm sorry folks but logging companies dredge up the soil, releasing carbons and increases global warming. The "forests" they replant are nothing like the diverse layers of woods that evolved for hundreds of years. The replanted forests are often monocultures with unhealthy soils. Paper mills take down older forests. Newly planted trees CANNOT absorb CO2 and dredged up, depleted soil can no longer be a carbon sink. We should never be so arrogant to think we can disrupt an ecosystem this way then "simply replant it".

I use paper towels and am I guilty? NO..NO..NO!
The paper industry supplies thousands of jobs and do we need jobs? Where have you been? Trees are renewable and the trees used most often are fast growing trees. Without proper forest management our forests would be a mess. So I use them and also use paper bags for my groceries; those I recycle to put my other paper items in to carry out to the recycling bin.

@Kate, which trees specifically are the "fast growing species" used by the paper industry?

I have to wonder why people can't just buy the recycled paper towels. They're just as effective. If we think we have a mess now, just wait until climate change gets really bad. Think spilled juice is bad? Try mopping up flood waters.

Even recycled has fresh pulp added. They are not 100 percent post consumer.

Take that as you need.

My partner is a paper towel person.
I'm not.
I won't buy them, avoid using them.
I do, however, have a touch of ecoguilt because I will dry my reusable rags in the dryer as a sterilization method. I was in cold, so dryer time is germ killing time.
They go in with his work clothes, so I'm not creating a whole new load, but still.
Everything else rack dries.

I use paper towels all the time. That way my house can be clean. All of our laundry gets pet hair on it before I can put it away.