Here Comes More Waste: The Literal and Commercial Kind

Hello dear readers.

In our previous posts, we've told you how we've been desperately trying to cut back our use of papergoods in our home. We only use paper towels in emergencies (say, our cat throwing up a hairball) and we use toilet paper for, well, you know.

Other than that, we use towels and old t-shirts that we've recycled to clean the house, Tristan uses cloth napkins to dry his hands in public bathrooms (I'm still trying to get on board with this one), and we use cloth napkins at the dinner table. It works really well.

However, we were quite frustrated to hear that Kleenex is creating disposable Hand Towels! Really? What ever happened to regular, washable, resuseable hand towels? To promote the sale of these disposable Hand Towels, Kleenex states, "People in the U.S. dry their hands on cloth bathroom towels approximately 200 billion times a year. The CDC guidelines for hand washing recommends hand drying with a single-use towel. Families have not had a practical alternative to traditional cloth hand towels in their home bathrooms… until now.

Kleenex^® Hand Towels are an innovative solution that delivers one clean, fresh, dry towel every time you wash your hands. Each and every box is specifically designed with you in mind." (Kleenex homepage).

There are several interesting things about the rhetoric that Kleenex has chosen to use here. The language about sanitation is not accidental. Assuming that we dry our hands 200 billion times a year, does that mean we are willing to switch to 200 billion disposable Hand Towels? What would that do to our already dwindling world forests? The description also insinuates a fear that our consumer culture (what Kleenex's new handy Hand Towels is a part of) asserts that it can solve, one hand towel at a time; Kleenex promotes excessive waste in the guise of health.

Now. We've all gotten along really well with cloth towels, right? Haven't we? We already have an overwhelming amount of waste because of our "disposable" lifestyle. Do we really need more disposable goods? Just something to think about.

p.s.: we'd love to hear your feedback and thoughts about this product! Time deconstruct consumer culture people!

Cheers,

s&t