Paper towels are the absolute easiest throwaway item to replace in your kitchen. We’ve teamed up with Swedish Dishcloths company Swedish Wholesale to introduce you to their reusable eco-friendly dish cloths by sharing 5 ways reusable dish cloths are better than paper towels.

1. They’re more convenient. When you stock up on reusable dish cloths, you always have a few on hand. You can use them for your regular cleaning or pull one out in case of an unexpected spill. Because you don’t run out of them, you’ll never find yourself making an emergency run to the store to buy some. When a crisis like the Corona virus pandemic strikes, you won’t have to put yourself in a compromised position going out to get paper towels.

2. They save money. It’s a no brainer that buying something once that you can reuse over and over again saves more money than buying something once, throwing it away, and then buying the replacement. Swedish dish cloths last at least as long as 15 rolls of paper towels. If one cloth costs you $2, and each roll of paper towels costs around $1, that means 15 rolls of paper towels cost $15 – but you spend only $2 on a cloth. You could save at least $13 with every cloth you use.

3. They create less throwaway trash. Every year 13 billion pounds of paper towels are sent to landfills. Paper towels themselves are specifically designed to be thrown away. They come wrapped around a cardboard core you throw away, too.  Swedish reusable dish cloths are made from biodegradable cellulose and cotton, and can be composted, so there’s no trash along the spectrum.

4. They avoid plastic. Paper towels usually come wrapped in throwaway plastic. If you use a synthetic sponge, that’s actually plastic, as well. Reusable dish cloths skip the plastic in favor of eco-friendly cellulose and cotton that will biodegrade.

5. They create less kitchen clutter. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t have room in my kitchen or pantry for 15 rolls of paper towels – or even a six-pack! All I want in my kitchen sink or on the drainboard are one or two reusable dish cloths.  Here’s a stack of 10 reusable dish cloths. That would be the equivalent of 150 rolls of paper towels!!

NOTE: Swedish dish cloths dry hard. The benefit of this is that they don’t get smelly the way a sponge that stays damp does. But that also means that before you use it, give it a quick run under your kitchen faucet to dampen it up a bit. That will make it super absorbent and pliable. Also, lay these dish cloths out flat to dry after you use them. Then you can stand them up in your kitchen sink drainer for quick access whenever you need them.

Also, these dish cloths really do function more like sponges or paper towels than kitchen tea towels. You wouldn’t use them to dry a glass or a plate; you would use them to wash out a glass or wipe off a plate, as well as wipe down counters, walls, and floors as needed.

To wash Swedish dish cloths, throw them in the dishwasher; rinse them out with hot soapy water when you’re doing the dishes, or toss them in the washing machine, as long as you’re not adding fabric softener to the wash. Don’t put them in the dryer; just lay them out flat to dry.

You can get more information about Swedish reusable dish cloths here.

Want to get your own Swedish Dish Cloths? You can find them on Amazon here (my affiliate link, FYI). You can get a 10 pack for only $19.99, plus free delivery if you’re a Prime member.

NOTE: Partnerships with companies like Swedish Wholesale help us bring you the expert content you need to live the greener life you want. All editorial positions are our own.

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Want to reduce paper waste and clutter? Start by setting up paperless banking, which also allows you to electronically transfer money online. We’re partnering with WesternUnion.com to show you how to get paperless banking going and to easily send money online.

Why Bother?

Paper is one of the largest sources of clutter at home and in the office. Bills and bank statements are some of the most constant sources of wasteful paper you probably have that you could get rid of. Going paperless will immediately reduce the amount of paper cluttering up your house.

Making paper also takes a big toll on the environment. The US EPA says the average American uses the equivalent of about one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree every year. Going paperless saves trees and stops the pollution caused by cutting trees down, turning them into pulp, bleaching them (often with toxic chemicals), and creating paper. Going paperless is a total environmental win!

Going paperless also may reduce identity theft. Many people don’t bother shredding their bills before they throw them out, or even recycle them. That makes their personal information vulnerable to anyone who wants to rifle through their trash or recycling bin.

Online banking and money transfers save time, too. Rather than file bank statements, pay and file individual bills, write and mail checks, or physically have to go to a bank, you can deal with it all online. Easy peasy!

Plus, you can download apps on your mobile device so you can bank, pay bills, and transfer money all from your phone, if needed.

How To Do It

Almost every bank in the U.S. now offers paperless banking. All you need to do to take advantage of it is create an online account and agree to have your bank statements emailed to you rather than paper mailed. Once you do, it becomes very easy to monitor your bank account, or accounts if you have more than one.

You can also set up online billing so that, not only are you getting bank statements mailed to you, but credit card and other bills as well. Then, you can pay those bills electronically with no need to write paper checks, mail them in paper envelopes, and add a stamp!

If you need to send money to someone, you can easily do that, as well. In the case of Western Union, you can electronically transfer money directly to a bank account with no paper involved. You can also send money for cash pick up or to a mobile wallet, all without needing to use any paper.

Paperless and Online Is The Name of the Game

If you worry your electronic bills and transactions might get lost among your other email, you can set up a new email address just to receive your bills and billing statements. You can also set your calendar to notify you when a particular bill is due and payment must be made.

Here’s one more benefit: convenience. You can download your bank statements and billing history to your own computer, so you always have access to your accounts. With your mobile apps, you can pay bills or send money from wherever you area.

It’s Quick and Easy

Every bank makes it easy to switch to online banking. Create an account, then just start using it. The system is similar for setting up an account to transfer money from an account to a recipient.

You can get more information from Western Union on how to easily send money online here.

NOTE: Partners and sponsors enable us to bring you the expert content you need to lead the greener life you want. All editorial opinions remain our own.

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The company is also introducing a reusable shopping tote. The foldable, metallic brushed linen bag will feature a cityscape design representing every city where a Nordstrom store can be found. The bag comes in a little case that serves as the bottom of the bag when it is unfolded. Big enough to fit two shoe boxes, the bag will retail for  $21.95. Look for it first in the Northwest, Northern California, and Southern California.

Let’s hope Nordstrom’s next step is to sell clothing made from recycled, hemp and organic cotton fibers.

The post Nordstrom Bags It appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Packaging waste is a major concern for consumers and businesses alike.

In large part, that’s because businesses often don’t use the right size box for what they’re shipping out, which requires extra padding materials that create even more waste.

It never would have occurred to me as a business owner to make my own boxes, but our sponsor for this post, Packsize, recommends exactly that. I was so taken with that idea that I wanted to share it with you and give you some solid reasons as to why you should “evolve” and make your own box.

A Big Waste!

Packaging accounts for nearly 40 percent of all solid waste in municipal waste streams, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

That’s because American consumers and businesses generate over 75 million tons of container and packaging waste annually. The waste that’s not recycled ends up in landfills, threatening the environment and human health.

Waste = Pollution

There are numerous issues with landfills, one of the biggest being that they can pollute our air, land, and water.

STYRENE Many of the materials sent to landfills, including plastics and polystyrene foam, contain toxic chemicals.

↓ Polystyrene, like the foam packaging that a lot of electronics come padded in,  is non-biodegradable and non-recyclable and takes approximately 500 years to decompose.

↓ High levels of styrene can get released into the atmosphere, affecting our respiratory and central nervous systems and causing environmental problems.

↓ Soil and sediments can also become polluted by the landfill disposal of styrene waste. And, styrene is just one of the many harmful chemicals found in waste materials.

LEACHATES Leachates, the contaminated liquids that drain out as materials decompose, pose more health and environmental threats.

↓ Though landfills contain protective barriers designed to protect us from toxins, they eventually deteriorate, allowing leachates to leak through and enter the soil, groundwater, and waterways.

↓ From there, toxic chemicals can up in our drinking water and even get into our food.

What Can You Do to Make Your Packing
More Eco-Friendly?

As a business, you have a responsibility to be as sustainable as possible. Make your product packaging a priority. Doing so will help your business minimize its environmental footprint, while reducing costs and improving customer loyalty.

Here are some ways you can make your packaging more eco-friendly:

Perform a Sustainability Audit

Are your packaging and shipping operations as sustainable as you think? The only way to know for sure is by performing a sustainability audit.

The auditor will examine your entire packaging process, from production to disposal, and provide specific recommendations on how your sustainability performance could be improved. With an audit, you’ll know exactly what areas need improvements and how they can be achieved.

Use a Box Making Machine to Make Your Own Box

Are you using the smallest box possible to ship your products? Research shows the average package has 40% wasted space. With this wasted space, businesses end up using unnecessary and excessive packaging materials, including cardboard and filler material like packaging peanuts.

Here’s the problem: Your boxes may be too large for your items because you’re buying your boxes in bulk, in just a few sizes.

Fortunately, box making machines (like the one pictured above) can resolve some of these issues. With a box making machine on-site, you can make the specific sized box you need for the item you’re shipping, right when you need it.

Using the smallest box size possible eliminates wasted space and the need for unnecessary packing material. And, now that dimensional weight pricing is applied to all parcels, a box making machine can help your business save money on shipping costs.

Get Creative with Packing Materials

Your customers care about sustainable packaging. A recent study shows the majority of Americans prefer more environmentally sustainable paper and packaging options; and millennials are willing to pay more for eco-friendly and deforestation-free packaging options.

Many companies are already getting creative with their packaging materials. For instance:

√ Dell uses bamboo and mushroom packaging in place of Styrofoam.

√ Tom’s of Maine is experimenting with using potato starch in its polylactic acid (PLA) packaging. The company is taking food waste and below food-grade crops from landfills and working on turning them into a bio-plastic resin.

√ You can also tinker with the design of your packaging to turn it into something your customers can actually use. Most notably, Puma created the “Clever Little Bag”, a reusable shoe bag, to replace the traditional shoebox.

These are some steps you can take to reduce your business’s packaging waste. For other ways to increase your business’s sustainability, don’t miss:

10 Ways to Become an Eco-Friendly Company

Sources:
U.S. EPA
Sustainable Brands 

Sponsor Note: Sponsored posts enable us to bring you important content at no cost to you. Our editorial opinion remains our own.

The post Why You Should Make Your Own Box appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Do you hate getting actual phone books every year?

I sure do! In fact, when I see a heavy yellow pages or white pages sitting below my mail box or at my door, it makes me mad.

I never ordered those books, and now, with online search so easy, I definitely don’t use them.

⇒For one thing, their type is just too tiny for me to read.

⇒For another, the listings in the printed books may be out of date.

⇒Plus, a lot of recycling programs don’t accept phone books because the pages are glued together.

Printed phone books may still be useful for folks who don’t have ready access to the Internet.

But for the rest of us they’re a real waste.

That’s why I was happy to learn about YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. They’re a company that makes it easy to opt out of getting the phone books. Here’s how:

How to Cancel Your Phone Book

If you’re still on the fence about whether you should cancel your phone book, consider these astounding facts, compiled by the Product Stewardship Institute:

• Telephone book companies use an estimated 4.68 million trees worth of wood fiber each year. That’s the equivalent of 14 football fields’ worth of forest – every single year!
• In 2009, the last year the EPA has data on phone book recycling, only 37% of all phone books were recycled.
• In 2009, 410,000 tons of directories went to landfills or incinerators, at a cost of about $60 million to local governments – and you, the taxpayer – nationwide.

By the way, over 50 percent of the electricity used by Yellow Pages Goes Green comes from solar. They’re also a Green Power Partner with the U.S. EPA.

Source: Product Stewardship Institute
Image: Funkeemunkeyland, courtesy Flickr

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Most businesses are wasting a tremendous amount of money every year because they waste office paper. According to resource efficiency charity The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), UK businesses could save £23 billion per year by improving the way they manage resources. In the U.S., Reduce.org reports that the cost of using paper in an office can run 13 to 31 times the cost of buying it in the first place!

Tufts University and the non-profit Forest Ethics estimate that the average American office worker uses a sheet of paper every 12 minutes. That amounts to a ream per person every two and a half working weeks. In Britain, it’s estimated that the average office worker uses up to 45 sheets of paper per day, with half of this considered waste. Given what businesses pay for a 500-sheet ream, the notion that every staff member could essentially be wasting that amount of money every two-to-four working weeks should make any financial officer quake in his or her boots – especially after including the added costs of running printers, inks, toners and waste disposal.

The environmental costs are significant, too. Paper is one of the most energy-intensive products we use. The paper industry also uses more water to make a ton of product than any other major industry, along with an array of chemicals like chlorine and chlorine compounds. Plus, paper pulp may be produced from trees harvested from endangered forests and virgin, old-growth trees.

So what can you do to reduce waste office paper?

Most offices aren’t geared up to be completely paperless but there are many ways you can minimize both the financial and environmental impact of your office paper waste. Here are the five simplest and most cost-effective.

1) Use Less. The most obvious answer is to reduce usage. How? Print and copy on both sides. Exchange documents and memos electronically rather than printing or faxing. Determine whether circulars or hand-outs really need to be printed. Use electronic data storage rather than hard copy files.

2) Print smarter. Adjust fonts, margins and spacing to squeeze more text onto a standard sheet. Use a simpler type-face, rather than one with a lot of flair that requires more ink to print and takes up more space. Meanwhile, make printing somewhat inconvenient. Rather than have printers on employees desks, put them in a location that requires employees to get up and get their printed documents. It’s a little step, but can be very effective.

3) Use recycled-content, chlorine-free paper products. Making paper from 100% recycled content fiber instead of 100% virgin forest fibers reduces total energy consumption by 44%, net greenhouse gas emissions by 38%, particulate emissions by 41%, wastewater by 50%, solid waste by 49% and wood use by 100%, reports Environmental Paper Network in their 2007 State of the Paper Industry analysis.

4) Recycle paper rather than throw it away. Using paper recycling companies can ensure that the paper waste you do generate is dealt with in an environmentally sound manner – and all sensitive data can be destroyed in compliance with the Data Protection Act before going on to recycling.

5) Make it easy to recycle in the office. People will recycle when they know what paper to recycle, and when they can find recycling bins conveniently. Get your office to let employees know what they can recycle, and put in recycling bins near people’s desks and near the copying machines so it is convenient for people to use them.

Why waste money buying paper you’re just going to throw away? Protect your pocketbook as well as the planet by getting smart about how you use and recycle paper.

The post 5 Ways to Reduce Waste Office Paper appeared first on Big Green Purse.

• 1. Swap your print catalogs for digital catalogs via Catalog Spree
• 2. Stop unwanted paper mail via PaperKarma
• 3. Read your magazines on apps like Zinio
• 4. Read your newspapers on your iPad with apps like Flipboard
• 5. Subscribe to e-statements from your banking and financial institutions

The post Easy #EarthDay Action: Go Paperless appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Only if you want to protect the planet and save money…

Seriously, buying products in bulk is one of the most “eco” ways to shops; it’s one of the best ways to save money, too. Why? For starters, larger sizes deliver the same amount of product using less energy and materials than the equivalent number of smaller packages.

Next time you go shopping, browse the snack aisle and compare the difference for yourself. When you buy one large box of cookies, all you pay for is the cookies and the one box. But if you buy a “snack pack” of ten or twelve small bags, you end up with all those individual bags, plus the display box they came in and the cellophane wrapped around them. That’s a lot of excess packaging!

All that extra wrapping costs you more money. At Peapod, an online grocery store, a 15 oz. box of Famous Amos Chocolate Chip cookies runs around $3.99 or $.27/ounce. The package of 12 snack bags costs $5.79 or $.34/ounce. If you need snacks for yourself or your kids, why not buy reusable containers you can easily refill with cookies from the larger bag? Bonus: The snack containers will do a better job of protecting the snacks from getting crushed in a lunch bag or backpack.

Wal-Mart claims that a family of four can save as much as $2,000 per year just buying in bulk. When you have the space, choose the largest available sizes of shampoo, laundry detergent, toilet tissue, light bulbs, blanks CDs, pencils and pens…you get the idea.

Here’s how I saved $20 buying bulk cat food.

Got any bulk bargains of your own to share? Let us know.

The post The Truth Behind Buying in Bulk appeared first on Big Green Purse.

It’s one thing to pay two or three or even four dollars for a cup of coffee. It’s another to throw cup after cup away. If we do it every day, it amounts to almost twenty-five pounds of waste every year. The petrochemicals consumed in making the cups just one coffee drinker tosses could heat 8,300 homes for one year. Carting them to a landfill burns additional energy, never mind the fact that each one takes about five hundred years to decompose.

What good does it do if you buy the “right” coffee (i.e., organic, shade-grown, Fair Trade Certified) if you drink it out of a paper or Styrofoam cup you just toss in the garbage?

Beat the disposable rap by using your own mug. Every coffee shop sells them. Some places even give you a little discount if you use your own cup instead of theirs- if they don’t, ask for one. They’ll get the message after a while.

And if you forget your mug and need a take-out cup, ask the shop if they’re using the new ones made from recycled fibers that save trees. Do they make a difference? Starbucks’ recycled paper cup protects about 78,000 trees a year. Another option? Coffee cups you can compost.

Wondering what kind of coffee to buy? We’ve already figured it out!

And here are some suggestions if you’re in the market for an eco-friendlier coffee pot.

The post Coffee Mugs Matter appeared first on Big Green Purse.

How, then, does bottled water fit into the equation? Pepsi continues to push bottled water as a greener, cleaner alternative to much cheaper tap water. At my Earth Day presentation, I was amazed to note that virtually everyone who attended brought a bottle of Pepsi’s water with them. Yes, it was in the new “Eco-Fina” bottle, which they say is made using 50% less plastic than their conventional AquaFina bottle. Still, it made me wonder: why are thousands of people in the company drinking bottled water every day when they can get healthy water from the tap?

It’s not like bottled water has been a public relations boon for Pepsi. To the contrary, Eco-Fina bottle or no, Pepsi has taken a lot of heat from green mom bloggers, social justice advocates, and consumer groups who feel that bottled water is an environmental nightmare. Pepsi has made some strides in reducing the environmental impact of the bottle, but still: they’re selling water, a local resource that is becoming more and more scarce, in communities grappling with drought, burgeoning populations and unchecked development.

Is Pepsi likely to abandon selling a product that generates millions and millions of dollars in revenue each year? Not unless there’s a compelling alternative — or competition. So how about this:

Get Pepsi to follow the example of cleaning companies like Arm & Hammer, which sells one empty bottle, plus cartridges of cleaning concentrate the consumer can mix with water at home. Couldn’t Pepsi sell a reuseable bottle that could be refilled at convenience stores and restaurants as well as at home? If Pepsi is mostly interested in selling water, it can market an in-store dispenser so people can fill up their reusable water bottles rather than purchase a new one each time they’re thirsty.

This idea is not only doable – it’s already being done, sort of. Consider 7-11. Every day, millions of people make their own Slurpees at 7-11 with nary a complaint. I haven’t met a person yet who is not capable of putting a cup underneath the Slurpee faucet and filling up. Why not figure out a way for people to bottle their own Eco-Fina water in the same way? True, this strategy wouldn’t put a dent in the proportion of bottles being sold out of vending machines. But it would severely reduce the number of plastic water bottles being sold at 7-11, Stop and Shop, and thousands of other convenience stores.  Restaurants, meanwhile, could serve water in Eco-Fina-labeled pitchers. Since most of the water Pepsi puts in its bottles is tap water, there’s not much difference if it’s served in a branded bottle or a branded carafe.

I’d recommend that Pepsi not drag its heels too long waiting to make a change like this. Otherwise, some entrepreneurs at 7-11 just may take it into their heads to market their own branded refillable bottles, and then sell refills from the tap for the same amount of money they earn for stocking each bottle of Eco-Fina on their shelves (which usually amounts to about half the retail price of the product).

There’s nothing like a little competition to get someone to rethink their approach. 7-11, I hope you’re paying attention. Pepsi, you too.

NOTE: This post is part of this month’s Green Moms Carnival selection on food. Water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration…though not very well.

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