Could you give up your toilet paper?
The "family cloth" is basically using cloth wipes in place of toilet paper, for all members of the family, not just babies. It's not just one cloth shared by the family of course, but basically a pile of clean cloths that you use instead of toilet paper and then place in a bucket to be washed.
According to this article by Donna T, for families that are already familiar with cloth diapering or using cloths instead of disposable baby wipes, it's really not that much of a jump.
However, there are variations in usage, according to the article, even among proponents of the family cloth. The article notes that some men refuse to use it, some households use it only for urination and many families will stock regular toilet paper for their guests.
I commend anyone that can go the family cloth way. However, sticking with my motto of taking baby steps, switching to recycled toilet paper might be a smoother change for most of us. Here is a review of some recycled toilet paper brands, including Seventh Generation, Earth First and Whole Foods 365.
According to this article by Donna T, for families that are already familiar with cloth diapering or using cloths instead of disposable baby wipes, it's really not that much of a jump.
However, there are variations in usage, according to the article, even among proponents of the family cloth. The article notes that some men refuse to use it, some households use it only for urination and many families will stock regular toilet paper for their guests.
I commend anyone that can go the family cloth way. However, sticking with my motto of taking baby steps, switching to recycled toilet paper might be a smoother change for most of us. Here is a review of some recycled toilet paper brands, including Seventh Generation, Earth First and Whole Foods 365.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-02-2007 @ 11:56AM
Henry said...
Okay, this is the first time I've ever heard of this (aside from babies using cloth). This just does not sound appealing at all. Wouldn't using cloth use more water and energy? Depending on the number of people in the household, you'd have to wash these cloths frequently in hot water to kill bacteria because you're saving them up in a bucket, so you could wash them all at once. That's a lot of electricity for your washing machine and drier. It may be eco-friendlier, but by how much? It just doesn't sound very practical nor sanitary.
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10-06-2007 @ 7:47AM
myself said...
Is this a joke??? Who the heck would want to put a
cloth covered in sh***% in a washing machine that I clean my clothes in??? I'll stick with the old fasioned way and use toilet paper. I think these environmentalists are going crazier than normal, I dont mind a little conservation of our resources to help the environment but come on people!!!! Toilet paper???????????????????? Whats next, recycling urine into bottled water???????
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12-21-2007 @ 1:30PM
Fritaly said...
Um, myself- you've never been so sick and shit yourself? You've never had kids either obviously since dealing with babies there's all sorts of bodily fluids and substances on their clothes. You know, spit happens?!
The point of the washing machine is to take something DIRTY and make it CLEAN. If you're concerned about germs- warm or hot water works well and a good SAFE detergent will preserve your clothes, not harm the environment and CLEAN BETTER than the chemical crap.
Same goes for all those nasty chemical cleaners they sell, one for each part of furniture or somesuch nonsense. The majority of things in the home can be safely and effectively cleaned with baking soda and vinegar.
It's one thing to not care about your own health, but using those chemicals harms the environment and thus in small but ever increasing amounts harms everyone else.
12-21-2007 @ 2:08PM
Fritaly said...
Oh and recycling urine into bottled water?
Already happens, courtesy of your sewer authority, water treatment plants, and bottled water companies using tap water (albeit filtered sometimes).
Oh yeah and MOTHER NATURE 'recycles' things too- it's called the ECOSYSTEM. Did you fall asleep all those years in biology and environment science?
10-06-2007 @ 10:15AM
kelly said...
I, too, will continue to use t.p. and eat lots of animals- they are so yummy! Animals were created by God for people's use, whatever it may be. And they don't have opinions or rights. Should I stop mowing my grass because it has feelings?
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10-06-2007 @ 10:16AM
calvin said...
Gotta tell you, the environazis have finally lost their collective mind. Just as soon as I witness one of you liberrazzis actually wipse your arse with recycled toilet paper I will contribute one red cent to your ridiculous cause.
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10-06-2007 @ 10:17AM
Rob The Wize said...
As an environmentalist, i'll have to say : Aint no F*ing way i'm going to have sh* rags sitting around to be washed
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10-06-2007 @ 10:22AM
COCO said...
Sorry....just not going for this one. I'll shut the water off while brushing my teeth. I'll use energy saving light bulbs, ect.
I just don't see the savings in this one. Laundry detergent, washing machine, hot water, and the dryer. Sounds like more resources being used than using TP !
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10-06-2007 @ 10:53AM
jkapple said...
Just squat over your compost pile and stir it in. Then drop and drag.
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10-06-2007 @ 10:54AM
wallower said...
GREAT IDEA!! The rest of us will be able to detect the wackos so we can stay upwind of them. Share the e.coli.
But Rosie O will need a beach towel, if her exhaust pipe is as large as she said it was before she had to Move On with it. Sheryl Crow could use a small handkerchief, but then she'd probably be OK with continuing to limit herself to one square of paper. As long as she sends it to Green Daily to recycle.
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10-06-2007 @ 11:17AM
Louye said...
This idea is right there with ethanol and the hybrid car. Does not work, but that does not matter. It makes them feel good. We all want meaning in our lives, and these people actually think they are saving the world. If increasing your chances of getting sick, and using a lot of energy, by using cloth wipes makes you feel like a "Super Best Friend", then do it, leave me alone. If using the food supply for fuel (fuel that actually burns 'dirtier' than gasoline) makes you feel like the earth's caped crusader (it will die without you), then do it, just leave me out of it. If you want to drive the world's most popular hybrid (even though in total it does more damage to the environment than a Hummer) so you feel like you can look the 'earth' in the eye in the morning and say "I care", then please do. Just leave me out of it. I don't force you to live my life. In return I do not want to be forced to live your more polluted, more diseased and starving world. I know, I know, but you feel better....
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10-06-2007 @ 11:28AM
david31415 said...
This nonsense should not be associated with mainstream environmentalism. This is SOME NUT talking. Or maybe some anti-environmentalist trying to give the movement a bad name. I haven't crunched any numbers, but I can't help thinking that the extra use of washing machines with the setting on "hot" to kill the fecal bacteria would be far more wasteful of resources than normal, uh, practices. Trees are a renewable resource.
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10-06-2007 @ 11:28AM
Cecil the serpent said...
OKAY! So we trade natural, renewable, toilet paper that also has 40% clay in it to make it even more biodegradable and absorbent...... to Beaching and laundering filthy rags in detergent with carbon producing fossil fuel heated water that may or may not kill the germs.
Talk about a wacky mixed-up step backwards...think of the stench and crap buckets and vistors coming into your house and covering their mouth and noses because they can smell what you cant anymore.
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10-06-2007 @ 12:28PM
david31415 said...
Louye's comment that the Prius does more damage to the environment than a Hummer is absolute nonsense. There was a study to that effect, which was design to try to get consulting dollars from big auto companies for the outfit conducting the study; it was very biased. I'm not saying hybrids are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Hybrid technology is technology, and you can use it to power a behemoth, and you'll still get pretty lousy gas mileage, or you can use it to improve performance rather than gas mileage. Or you can use it for gas mileage. But hybrid does not necessarily equal energy efficient. And there are several different hybrid technologies, and none of them do as good a job as the hybrid tech the Prius uses. There are also competing technologies--diesels, and new twists on gasoline engines that may or may not prove superior to hybrids, at least in general. Nonetheless, the Prius is a technological tour de force, and for the moment at least, it sets the standard.
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10-06-2007 @ 2:35PM
D.Pangelinan said...
who ever came up with this must out of there rabbit ass mind!!!!!
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10-06-2007 @ 2:35PM
sunnship said...
Who's going to clean up the inside of the poopie cloth bin? That is a lot of s* thats going to stick to the inner walls of the bin and stink worse than any air freshener can handle. Nothing like moving a port-a-pottie into your home. Just be extra careful washing up after! Don't want to get sick and die from your own family's e-coli!
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10-06-2007 @ 2:35PM
Nancy said...
Oh boy, that is NASTY. Who wants a bucket of poopy, bloody, urine stained rags to wash? Not me!
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10-06-2007 @ 6:45PM
dizzidaisy23 said...
We use family cloth at our house. The used cloth gets tossed into the diaper pail and washed with the diapers. I have yet to pull anything out of my dryer that smells like poo. ;) My first reaction to family cloth was that it was disgusting and I would never use it. It saves money and trees and doesn't use any extra water at my house because we already have to wash the diapers. There is no "scrubbing the inside of the pail" since we have washable pail liners. Really, it's not as gross as you think. It's so easy my 3 yr old can do it.
And anyone grossed out by putting soiled garments in the washer is missing the whole point of a washing machine. It's the machine's job to clean things. Unless you throw out your underwear after every use, some of those bodily fluids and yes, even some solids, will find their way into the washing machine.
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10-07-2007 @ 6:11AM
myself said...
Im still using toilet paper, and yes I still eat animals.
People Eating Tasty Animals. Im proud of it.
Do you really think that you will get Billions of people to stop using these items and actually make a difference??? I think not....lets focus on real issues like
starving children, aids, and curing diseases, the homeless, ect.............
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10-07-2007 @ 10:36AM
cygnet said...
Myself- I don't think she was trying to "will get Billions of people to stop using these items." She didn't sound like she was proselytizing at all. Rather, I think she was providing her point of view on a lifestyle choice she has made. Which, by the way, doesn't exclude her from charitable contributions toward ending hunger, AIDS, etc.
I was glad to hear from a real person that uses family cloth (I don't). I would like to read more from people who do.
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