Comments on: AskPablo: Napkins

By: Another Chink in the Armor of Civility? Or Just Convenient? It’s All OK at Weekly Open Thread | Nashville.Visitor.Info

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:55:37 +0000

[...] like to use cloth napkins because they’re reusable and might or might not have a smaller environmental footprint. Just, sometimes, it’s hard [...]

By: Set a Greener Table. « ram-bunc-tious

Set a Greener Table. « ram-bunc-tious — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:23:12 +0000

[...] some raw data on carbon footprint and water usage, check out this sustainability engineer’s answer (2007) to the “which is better?” [...]

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:51:42 +0000

I just wipe my mouth on the underside of my shirt :)

By: Timo McIntosh

Timo McIntosh — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:15:36 +0000

A couple quick points:

1. The points about usage are valid even if you want to stick with the restaurant analysis, and discount home usage patterns. Napkins/meal/person are not 1:1 by any realistic assumption. I would say that with all the waste its probably 4 or 5 paper usages to 1 linen, but 3 would be a conservative estimate. Go to a restaurant that uses paper, and you'll see what I am talking about. Stacks and stacks get tossed around and used at each meal.

2. The assumptions about recycling seem to always be that the raw material is magically free. It's the same assumption that people use to claim that biodiesel is clean or that buying used somehow negates the initial build cost. Just because something is reused and/or comes from plants doesn't mean there is a negligible cost associated with its production. Analysis is all about energy used over the lifetime of the product. A good energy/environmental analysis must account for the material from "cradle to cradle" (forgive the reference).

If you really want to honestly answer this question in reference to recycled paper, you have to look at the cost of the original virgin pulp and factor that into a cost per use of the wood fiber. I would guess wood fibers get used 2 maybe 3 times tops. So when you average out the cost all the way through we don't get the rosy picture of recycled paper. Switching between "virgin" and "recycled" seems to always be a way to fudge numbers to make a point.

None of this mentions that recycled paper never comes from 100% used paper. There is pre consumer and industrial sources of course, but paper needs to have some sort of binding fibers (i.e. cotton or virgin pulp) that generally recycled sources can't produce. It may come from old cloth or wood scrap, but to think that recycled paper comes just from the paper that gets processed out of what we throw into the recycle bin is overly simplistic. Remember "100%" legally only means 90something% in most cases and sometimes down to 70%.

By: Pablo

Pablo — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:34:18 +0000

This case is based on restaurant use, not home use. So yes, the entire load of laundry could be napkins. And yes, the expected lifespan of a heavily bleached food service napkin is around 50 uses. Otganic cotton reduces the impact of growing the fibers but it does nothing to reduce the energy and water used in washing and drying. Therefore any difference in materials is negligible.

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:25:52 +0000

Most napkins are used for YEARS, not just 50 times… Obviously you don’t use cloth napkins on a regular basis if you can so easily pull out a skewed number like that for your calculations.
I also noticed you based on 100% post consumer content paper napkins… Yet you did not factor with ORGANIC cotton? You factored with the best that paper has to offer against the worst that cotton has to offer… Yet again skewed.
More than likely the average Joe is going to be purchasing Vigin wood fiber napkins…
Oh, and by the way… I don’t know anyone who washes and entire load of nothing but napkins… They are tossed in with other clothing or other towels to fill a load to capacity and not waste water…
Napkins are better off being line dried as the dryer causes the cotton to wrinkle tremendously. So the amount of power used for this is mute.
I think you need to re-run your impressive calculations for real life situations.

By: Marge Yeager

Marge Yeager — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:53:47 +0000

Interesting analysis, but several of your premises are faulty. (Just ask your mother. )
1) I have never had a cloth napkin that was used only 50 times. I have some that are 20 years old, and are still in service.
2) Many cloth napkins are reused several times between launderings. Sometimes for multiple days. If used for three meals per day, for only two days, that’s six uses between launderings. At 50 launderings a year, we have 300 uses in one year alone.
3) Often people use more than one paper napkin at a meal — that’s why “napkin holders” exist. Seldom do people use more than one cloth napkin per meal.
Thanks though for working that all out.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:49:37 +0000

I’m sure that napkins aren’t the only laundry that restaurants have to do…..besides, I think most people use way more paper napkins than they need to. And don’t forget the environmental costs of the packaging for those paper napkins……Anyway, a really green solution to the “restaurant napkins” conundrum would be for restaurant guests to bring their own organic cotton napkins (obtained second-hand) from home and wash them with the rest of their regular laundry. Problem solved?

By: gwagga

gwagga — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:28:13 +0000

Too bad it was not made clear in the beginning that this was regarding napkins in a restaurant. Personally I prefer paper napkins, since you can never be sure how they were washed. Now your data means it is the best choice for the ‘green’ concerned. At home, however, we use cloth and they last yrs and yrs. Oh, BTW spell ck comment: your “You can now recieve AskPablo by weekly email!” …… receive. Thankxxx

By: Christie Missik

Christie Missik — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:21:46 +0000

It is unlikely that washing cloth napkins would result in more loads of laundry than a family does anyway. Several napkins thrown into a load in the washing machine hardly adds any volume. So from that perspective, I don’t think washing and drying environmental costs should count, except for restaurants.

By: Stephen Beitzel

Stephen Beitzel — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:47:35 +0000

We have cloth napkins (cotton, and for purposes of restaurant napkins ‘linen’ also means cotton — in fact some of ours at home are restaurant napkins). We wind up washing each napkin about once a week and we have napkins that are 20 years old and only starting to show wear. The restaurant napkins (purchased at a restaurant supply store) are newer and they are heavier than the oldest ones. Estimating 50 weeks per year (to allow for the occasional vacation) gives a useful lifespan of, I’d guess, 1000 to 1500 washes.

By: LL Donovan

LL Donovan — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:10:40 +0000

I appreciate the calculations and, clearly, commercial vs. home use is an essential difference. We use one cotton napkin per person for several days and have several sets of napkins. When 3 sets are soiled, they are laundered along with other colored items on an energy efficient setting, and line dried. Like many others, I doubt the 50-use lifetime and would gauge 2 to 3 times that.
Bear in mind that there are fuel costs for shipping paper napkins to the store and for the consumer’s travel to the store to purchase them. I have no idea how to gauge it, but you have to take into account the warehouse and supermarket space that are built and maintained to hold the inventory of paper products.

By: Jules Macaluso

Jules Macaluso — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 03:22:08 +0000

Wow! The results are shocking as a few people have stated. I also use my cloth napkins a few times (if they aren’t soiled) before washing them. I’m still using cloth napkins that are over 5 yrs old. After they look dingy or rip, I use them as rags to dust with, wipe down my counters, or wash the floor. I guess that leads to the discussion of paper towels or cloth rags. Just kidding, it will be the same answer.
Pablo, thank you for being such an extraordinary researcher. Just when you think the answer is obvious, Mr. MIPS sets the record straight for us.

By: Aeyn Edwards

Aeyn Edwards — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:04:25 +0000

My husband and I have used cloth (cotton) napkins for over 6 years… at most every meal. I have the same 10 that I originally purchased when we got married. They are organic cotton… and regardless of anything else, I certainly have used them many times more than 50 each. Additionally, I don’t necessarily wash one after a meal. For example, if I use one while eating my granola for breakfast, and the meal is not messy, then it just stays out for the next meal to be used. Often, a linen lasts for three meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), finally moving to hamper to be washed after the messier dinner. Thus, you get more meals per napkin between each wash, if the meals aren’t messy. And thus, the data could be better for the linen napkins.
Thanks for the info, though… always good to read your thoughts, Pablo. It always gets me thinking! -smile-