Replaced nearly all of my paper towel use with these nice little kitchen cloths I made from an old flannel sheet and some cheap new towels.
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@metagrrrl So the water/energy use of cleaning these (and amortized production/destruction cost) is less than the waste of manufacturing and throwing away paper towels?
@peterdrake The few paper towels I do use almost all go into the compost.
Since these are small towels, amounting over the course of a week to something the size of a sweatshirt, the laundry impact is minor.
Treehugger has a comparable analysis of cloth vs paper napkins, which concluded that for home use cloth is better. https://www.treehugger.com/are-paper-napkins-more-environmentally-friendly-4858552
@peterdrake Vastly better. I'm learning the great majority of my former paper towel use didn't actually require throwing something away; just steam drip from the microwave and the like.
So my practice is to have a cloth I use until it's a bit manky or the end of the day, whichever comes first. If a cloth gets really messy or has something on it which might stain things, I toss it in the bottom of the shower where it will get rinsed before washing with ordinary laundry.