Simply Green - China and Napkins

Our breakfast table.

I would guess that I'm as lazy as the next person, but I must admit that I miss the days before everything was disposable.  When I was growing up and asked for a napkin I didn't get a piece of paper. I got a piece of cloth 18 inches by 18 inches that was generally folded in half three times forming a rectangle. It was made either from cotton or linen, depending upon whether or not there was company. I don't know when we transitioned from cloth to paper, but when Pamela and I first started going together we realized that we both preferred cloth napkins and made the conscious decision to spoil ourselves with the luxury of the traditional gentility. The time to wash them is negligible and using cloth as opposed to paper is actually much cheaper.  Even our simple breakfast table is set with cloth.

Many years ago when my late wife, Diana, was alive and we had four small children at home, we did a great deal of canning. We bought some jars at an auction. My mother-in-law saw the jars and started chiding us for using them. "They are worth a great deal of money," she scolded, to which I replied, "not unless they have food in them."  What's the use of having something nice if you don't use it? 

Our every day table setting. Pretty, fun to use, easy to
maintain, and in the end result a lot cheaper than plastic
or paper 

Pamela and I also realized that we both prefer to have our meals on china, or at least not plastic or paper. When we brought our two households together we found that we were blessed with several lovely table settings.  One set, which is more earthy, is what we use every day. There are three more formal sets which we enjoy using to be a bit more gentile - like when Pam's son and his wife and my daughter and her husband shared a meal with us.  

Pamela's favorite of our "formal" table setting. Still pretty,
fun, and ultimately costs less. 

Some people call that 'putting on the Ritz' or 'putting on airs'. Since we do it for our own pleasure and don't really care what anyone else thinks of it, we call it enjoying nice things with which we have been blessed.  Believe it or not we have the same table habits the four months of the year we have been living in Willy, our 16 ft 35 year old camper and next year we expect that to be 7-8 months. We may be outdoors people and prefer to be in the woods many miles from so-called civilization, but that doesn't mean that we stop liking cloth napkins and china.  In fact, we even use the proper wine glasses when we're in the wilderness. 

What all this is leading to is that we realized that what we like and what we found to be financially beneficial is also simply green. If you really enjoy setting a "fancy" table for a special occasion, then why not enjoy having the nice tableware and napkins everyday. You can enjoy that special feeling and be good to the the environment at the same time.  If you don't really like setting a "fancy" table, you might want to at least consider the ease, money saving, and environmentally friendly qualities of using cloth napkins and some other tableware other than plastic and paper.

Here are some numbers.  I wasn't able to identify the individual paper product, so these numbers relate to the manufacture of all paper products.  39 gallons of water is required to make 1 pound of paper! (That one blew my mind.) 93% of paper products come from trees. Every tree produces enough oxygen for 3 people to breathe.  Another surprising fact for me is that pulp and paper is the third largest industrial polluter of air, water and soil.  Your paper plates and other household paper products can not be recycled because they are contaminated with food residue, so unless you compost, your paper products go straight to the landfill where paper produces methane gas as it rots. Methane gas is 25 times more toxic than CO2.   


How about cost?  How much is it going to cost us to give up paper products.  If you buy a case of paper towels at Sam's Club you can get them as cheaply as $0.96/roll.  Even then you're probably looking at $52/year.  Cloth napkins at Sam's Club cost $0.53/each. That's $6.36 a dozen. I can't remember the last time I threw a cloth napkin away but even if I had to replace a dozen a year I'm still paying only 12.23% of the cost of paper.  

You can buy 186 paper plates for only $17.48 at Sam's. I could not find the average number of paper plates used per year, so let's say you'll buy at least one package -- right?   One of our expensive china setting now costs $189/place setting.  We didn't pay anyways near that, but let's use that as a comparison. Highest cost for china. Lowest cost for paper. We've had this particular setting for 47 years. That means that it has cost us $4.02/setting/year for that china, and the cost goes down each year. For six people it costs $24.12 to use that china 3 times day if we like.  My china cost will go down while the paper cost will go up.  And if you really want to see a savings, compare paper to a set of 6 Corell plates for 31.98.  In two years your cost will be $15.99 for Corell compared to $34.96 in paper. 

Conclusion.  Using things like cloth napkins and china, corell or some other non-plastic or non-paper product is not only much better for the environment but is going to save you money.  

AGAIN, BEING GREEN SAVES YOU MONEY and SAVES THE ENVIRONMENT. ANOTHER WIN-WIN SITUATION. 


Reference: 

http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Paper-Waste-Facts

http://www.livestrong.com/article/226810-environmental-effect-of-paper-plates/

www.gao.gov/assets/670/667773.pdf

http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/signpost/index.html

www.walmart.com

www.samsclub.com