Shopping at HomeGoods is an excellent way to save money, but one Redditor found an item that will also help the planet.
The Reddit user posted a picture of a paper towel holder in the subreddit r/ZeroWaste. But instead of the typical Bounty or Brawny rolls, it had reusable kitchen towels wrapped around it with an empty box of Ciroa reusable kitchen towels sitting in front of it.
Found these at HomeGoods for ten bucks. Let's break my paper towel habit!
by u/RiveterRigg in ZeroWaste
"Found these at HomeGoods for ten bucks. Let's break my paper towel habit!" they write.
According to market research firm Euromonitor International, Americans spend about $5.7 billion on paper towels for use in the home, which is almost as much as the rest of the world combined.
An eight-pack of Bounty Family Rolls (which equals 20 regular rolls) costs about $20 on Amazon, and the reusable towels the Redditor found were $10 for a box of 20. Even if the towels you find aren't that cheap, like these fabulous Swedish dishcloths, it will still save you money in the long run.
While a paper towel may be a quicker picker-upper, it's also a quicker thrower-awayer, which means landfills are full of them. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that the U.S. generated 7.4 billion pounds of paper towels and other "tissue" materials waste in 2015.
Even though paper towels decompose relatively quickly, paper releases methane during that process. And according to the EPA, methane's impact on the atmosphere is more than 25 times greater than carbon dioxide.
Other Redditors loved the reusable towel idea and even threw in some other sustainable options, like one person who comments, "I took some old worn out towels and T-shirts, cut them into squares and use them for cleaning most things."
Another Redditor posts, "Yay these are great and so cute! We've been using cloth paper towels for years now and we love them! We keep around a roll of paper towel for really gross things like cat puke, but a roll lasts us months."
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