Trying to cook up a zero waste kitchen? Then it’s time to ditch your disposable kitchen towel in favor of reusable paper towels.
Like lots of outdated recipes that have a number of bad ingredients, paper towel “ingredients” consist of virgin tree materials. If you consider the number of paper towels used globally, that equates to a lot of cut trees for the sake of spills. Add in the manufacturing emissions, plastic wrap, and their single-use contribution to landfill waste, and you have an enormous impact.
While single-use habits can be hard to break, learning to replace disposable sheets with paper towel alternatives is one simple swap that can soak up a lot of waste.
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The Best Reusable Paper Towels To Wipe Away Waste
Give traditional paper towels the boot and brighten up your kitchen with the compostable Swedish dishcloths from Papaya in a variety of fun designs.
Juniperseed Mercantile, on the other hand, keeps it clean and simple with unbleached organic cotton reusable paper towels.
Index: Reusable Alternatives To Paper Towels
- Papaya Reusables Jump to brand
- Marley’s Monsters Jump to brand
- ZWS Essentials Jump to brand
- Juniperseed Mercantile Jump to brand
- Etsy Jump to brand
Papaya Reusables
Papaya’s Reusable Paper Towels
Price Range: $16–$180
Swedish dishcloths are all the zero waste cleaning rage—and Papaya fuels the fire with their colorful collection of Swedish dishcloths. Somewhere in between a sponge and a rag, these cloth-like paper towels are highly absorbent and last long enough to replace about 17 rolls of regular paper towels.
Made from a 100% biodegradable mixture of wood pulp cellulose and cotton, Papaya towels absorb up to 15 times their own weight. Being easy to wash (by hand or machine) and quick-drying, bacteria is less likely to grow. When they do wear out, they’re compostable.
No surprise the average Papaya reusable paper towels review is 4.97/5.
About Papaya Reusables
Papaya Reusables calls washable paper towels “the soon-to-be kitchen staple in every household in America”. That’s why these quirky and fun-named wipes are all they specialize in. In doing so, they hope to make sustainability accessible to everyone.
Marley’s Monsters
Marley’s Monsters’ Washable Paper Towels
Price Range: $20–$96
Marley’s Monsters’ motto is “Live Colorfully, Tread Lightly” and their UNpaper® Towels help with that. They’re made from 100% cotton flannel that gets more absorbent over time and can be used on any paper towel roll due to the flannel’s ability to cling together.
Each single ply cloth is 12” x 10” and they’re available in packs of six or twelve, as well as an option to order the whole reusable paper towel roll and holder all in one. Otherwise, they’ll fit on almost any traditional paper towel holder.
About Marley’s Monsters
Women-owned Marley’s Monsters is a one-stop-shop for eco home essentials like toilet paper, bath and beauty products, biodegradable baby wipes, and more. Their fabric and wooden products are handmade in Eugene, Oregon where they also have a brick-and-mortar store.
They’re a BRING Rethink certified company for their waste-reducing practices, and products are packaged and shipped plastic free.
ZWS Essentials
ZWS Essentials’ Paper Towel Replacement
Price Range: $6
If pretty vintage designs are what you want from your reusable kitchen towels, we’ll spill the beans on ZWS Essentials.
Another Swedish dishcloth option, these cotton and cellulose pads absorb up to 3/4 cups of liquid—and then just wring them out and use again! If cared for properly (washed and hung to air dry), you can continue using these reusable towels for cleaning for 6-12 months or 200 washes.
About ZWS Essentials
ZWS Essentials is the name of the in-house product line made by online zero waste store ZeroWasteStore.com. As you might infer, they offer a massive selection of goodies in just about any category you can think of—from pets to a wedding registry service.
Any personal care and cleaning products are natural, organic, cruelty-free, palm oil-free, and mostly vegan, and everything comes in reusable or compostable packaging. ZeroWasteStore.com is a member of 1% for the Planet and ships carbon-neutral.
Juniperseed Mercantile
Juniper Seed Mercantile’s Reusable Paper Towels
Price Range: $95–$125
Juniper Seed Mercantile’s reusable cloth paper towels are made from 100% unbleached organic cotton that’s resilient and highly absorbent. Each 6-pack is wrapped with compostable paper, meaning these are 100% plastic-free paper towels.
About Juniperseed Mercantile
Juniperseed Mercantile products are handmade in small batches, in Littleton, Colorado. They’re all about “Down to Earth Decadence” and they use natural and (where possible) organic ingredients in their beauty, home, and skincare products that are palm oil-free, cruelty-free and mostly vegan friendly.
To reduce plastic waste, they package in glass, aluminum, and compostable tubes. They also offer workshops and refills for personal care products at their Littleton storefront.
Etsy
For those hoping their spill habits can also support small businesses, turn to Etsy. With tons of sellers to choose from, you’re sure to find the right paper towel substitute for your conscious cleaning needs.
USA:
- generation Me offers handmade reusable cloth paper towels made from 100% cotton including an organic, unbleached cotton option and rainbow colors. Both one-ply and two-ply are available.
- Cozy Simple Living has plenty of different prints to choose from. They’re sold in sets of 12 and can be stored on any reusable paper towel roll dispenser.
- Gina’s Soft Cloth Shop’s stacks of reusable cloth paper towels are made from 100% cotton. You can choose your preferred color of thread for the serged edging to prevent fraying.
Canada:
- Cheeks Ahoy Handmade’s 100% cotton flannel sets are soft enough to be used anywhere, even as reusable hand towels and face towels. They come in pre-rolled sets on a reusable Kraft cardboard tube.
- La Girafe Couture sells one-ply and two-ply 100% cotton reusable paper towels in a selection of fun and colorful prints.
UK:
- Earth Kind Creations has reusable cloth paper towels made from cotton with optional fastenings so that they can be poppered together on a roll. They also sell scrubbies and plastic free “unsponges” for cleaning up tougher messes.
- Ginger Green Co also offers reusable paper towels with snaps to store on a roll. Each sheet has a soft cotton front and extra absorptive cotton toweling back.
Australia:
- Eco Lovely Designs’ reusable cloth paper towels come in a choice of beautiful prints. Made from 100% cotton flannelette, they cling together to be stored on a roll.
Jenny is a UK-based sustainability writer and tea-drinker extraordinaire who has a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. Her travels have taken her to organic permaculture farms in the UK and Nepal but you’ll mostly find her working on the veg patch with a garden fork in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Jenny writes for ethical brands and purpose-powered publications on a broad range of sustainable living and conscious consumerism topics. She is passionate about organic and regenerative farming, nature reconnection, and the small things we can do each day to better care for our planet.
