RE-USABLE CLOTH NAPKINS

GREEN TIP
Brought to you by the MdTL Green Committee
Did you know that MdTL children bring re-usable cloth napkins for their lunches? Here’s why…
* Cloth napkins can have less impact on the environment than paper napkins.
Manufacture of a virgin paper napkin has a huge environmental impact, including deforestation, bleaching, packaging, shipping, stocking at a supermarket, and consumer transportation to and from the store. One hundred percent post-consumer recycled, chlorine-free paper napkins have less impact, but they can be expensive and they come wrapped in plastic packaging that will ultimately need to be transported to a landfill.
Cloth napkins can also have significant environmental impact, as conventional cotton production relies heavily on pesticides. Minimize your impact by using organic cotton or by choosing hemp or linen, which are more sustainable than conventional cotton.
* When using cloth napkins, you can further reduce your environmental impact by washing them in cold water with phosphate-free detergent or soap nuts, and line drying.
Only wash your napkins when soiled (most adults don’t really dirty a napkin after every meal). Consider using napkin rings so each family member can designate his or her napkin between meals. You can wash your soiled napkins in cold water with other laundry using eco-friendly laundry detergent or soap nuts, and do consider hanging the napkins to air dry.
* Purchase (or make) cloth napkins that your child can decorate with fabric paint!
What a fun project -- decorating napkins that the family will be using! You can find lovely and fun used cloth napkins at second hand stores, at flea markets, and on eBay. Or if you are so inclined, you can make your own napkins by cutting up old sheets, towels, etc., and hemming the edges.
* If you must have some paper napkins, 100 % recycled ones have far less environmental impact than virgin paper napkins.
Virgin fiber is derived directly from a tree. If every household in the United States replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins with 100% recycled napkins, we could save a million trees. Also, less energy is used to recycle paper products than to create them from virgin material – each ton of 100% post-consumer recycled paper that displaces a ton of virgin fiber paper saves 7,000 gallons of water, 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity and prevents 60 pounds of pollutants from entering the atmosphere! In addition, use of recycled products helps protect wildlife habitat, diverts useful items from landfills (which saves both space and money), and helps preserve the earth's natural beauty.

RE-USE AND RECYCLE YOUR PAPER

GREEN TIP
Brought to you by the MdTL Green Committee
Did you know that MdTL re-uses and recycles paper? Here’s why…
* Recycling paper has less environmental impact than manufacturing new virgin paper.
Energy is needed to manufacture both virgin and recycled paper, but much less total energy is needed to produce recycled paper. Recycling of paper also reduces the overall amount of air and water pollution associated with paper manufacture, reduces the amount of waste going to the landfill, and relieves pressure on forest resources. In fact, it has been estimated that recycling half the world’s paper would avoid the harvesting of 20 million acres of forestland!
*Every piece of paper you recycle stays out of our landfills.
Paper products are the largest component of municipal solid waste, accounting for 35 to 40% of the composition of landfills. The U.S. paper industry has set a goal to recover 55 percent of all the paper used in the U.S. by 2012. Let’s hope we can exceed that goal!
* It is easy to recycle your paper!
Place paper recycling into a paper bag kept near your garbage can. Paper recycling includes computer paper, copy paper, construction paper (mixed color), magazines, newspapers and cardboard. Be aware that cardboard that has come into contact with food, such as pizza boxes, cannot be recycled, and must be manually sorted out at the recycling facility!
Come garbage day, place paper bags next to your garbage for curbside pickup. Twenty years ago, only one curbside recycling program existed in the Unites States, but today most major cities offer curbside recycling, and more than half of all Americans have access to curbside recycling programs.
* In this electronic age, we can continue to reduce our use of paper altogether.
Reduce paper use by sharing information via email instead of with a printout, or by printing on both sides of the paper if you do require a hardcopy (set your printer default to duplex). Most companies now offer paperless billing, so set up those electronic accounts with online bill payment! When paper use is absolutely necessary, make sure to buy paper with the highest percent of recycled material available.
Paper that has only been used on one side can be cut in half and stapled together to make a notepad. Or children can use it for cutting and taping projects. Let your imagination go! Every small way in which we can reduce our paper use will provide environmental benefits in terms of reducing resource use, waste production and associated pollutants.