The Better Material
The question of paper towels vs cloth towels comes down to what you want to use it for such as:
- Cleaning a spill
- Polishing your glassware
- Holding hot trays
While there is an argument for paper towels in some cases, the cloth towel is superior if you want your kitchen to be consistently clean.
Why the Argument for Paper Towels Being Better Doesn’t Make Sense
Anyone who says paper towels are better than cloth towels fail to take in one factor:
All paper towels are made from the same thing. But the same cannot be said for cloth towels
Cloth towels are usually made from one of these two fabrics
- Linen
- Cotton
Most people who say paper towels are better than cloth towels conveniently forget many of their arguments are for cotton towels and not linen towels. Linen has consistently proven itself to be the superior fabric vs cotton.
Bacteria Buildup
One argument for paper towels being better is they’re a one time use item so you don’t need to worry about bacteria buildup since you're going to throw them out.
That same argument then says cloth towels will eventually have bacteria buildup so its less hygienic
This argument doesn’t apply to linen cloth towels.
Linen is naturally anti-bacterial. It’s made to fight off bacteria.
That's why people who use linen towels love it so much. It’s woven to ensure no bacteria buildup occurs. The ability to prevent bacteria buildup is why people use linen towels to wipe their face.
Why Paper Towels Could Have More Bacteria Than Cloth Towels
Paper towels are usually a one time use item so you can say no cross contamination occurs, or can you?
1) Factory
Many of these paper towels are made in factories built for high speed product production. You and I both know that these factories are not going to be in the most hygienic conditions
2) Packaging
Similar to factories, because many of these facilities are fast paced, they likely also don’t have the best hygienic conditions, they’ll just tell you that so you feel better.
Odour
Another argument people give is that odour builds up quickly in cloth towels.
That’s only if you don’t do two things
- Choose the right fabric (as we discussed earlier)
- Clean it every 1-2 weeks (like you do with basically any fabric)
If you choose the right fabric, you have a cloth towel that won’t have an odour.
That’s where linen shines, it’s natural properties allow it to battle odours.
Odour buildup happens because of bacteria buildup. So what does the fabric need to do to stop bacteria from building up?
- Be Breathable
- Less prone to bacteria buildup
- Moisture wicking
Linens lightweight texture allows it to be breathable, its proprieties allow it to stop bacteria buildup (like we mentioned before), and its fibers stop moisture buildup which is why linens known to quickly dry.
Why Cloth Towels Make You Feel Better
Production
Made by Companies Who Care About Quality
Towels such as linen tea towels are usually made from companies that know what they’re doing and have smaller operations. This means they oversee the production process and ensure hygiene is in order when creating and packaging the product.
Many people say paper towels being a one time use is a cleaner option, but if that really was the case, why isn’t this concept applied to our bed sheets, towels, and our bath towels?
Quality, comfort and durability matter much more, and over the centuries humans have been around, we’ve been able to have those qualities, without sacrificing hygiene.
Ease of Use and Better Performance
No matter what anyone says, paper towels are built to do the bare minimum.
- Clean spills so it looks somewhat clean
- Line up trays so they looks somewhat presentable
A cloth towel does much more than this because that’s what it's built for; to be used more than once. So naturally, it has to perform better
- It absorbs much more affectively, leaving no streak marks
- It lines trays up more efficiently
- It polishes glassware so it shines more and doesn’t leave smudges.
Higher Quality
As said before, because the towel is built for more than one use, things like absorption is much better with a cloth towel than a paper towel.
Cloth towels like linen towels can also be used to wipe your hands and are healthier to use for your skin unlike a paper towel which is rougher on the skin.
Caring for Cloth towels
It’s easy, and its better
By now you should know that linen towels are much better for the kitchen than cotton and perform better than paper towels.
But some will say you have to care for cloth towels and no one wants to do that.
But taking care of linen is way too easy. Also it’s a better look for your home compared to having paper towels. If you live in your home and spend a large part of your life in it, it’s fine to have nice things like a linen towel.
Also they last a while, way longer than a roll of paper towel.
For paper towels, you’d have to face the fact that you’re going to run out of paper towels and you’re going to have to run to the store constantly to replace them.
Maybe you can get a subscription to paper towels, but at the end of the day, you don’t need to add another subscription to your bills.
What Cloth Towels Bring You
Cost Effectiveness
Upfront costs for paper towels are more than cloth towels. This is true.
You’ll then have people countered this argument with “even though initially paper towels cost more, cloth towels cost more in the long run”. Making paper towels seem like they’re better.
But this argument forgets that with paper towel costs, you have to also consider
- Garbage Costs - paper towels are frequently used and half your garbage is likely going to be paper towels
- Higher Cost per Use - things like spills will take more than one paper towel to clean up, a tea towel is woven so that it doesn’t need multiple towels to clean up one spill.
Contributes to a Cleaner Environment.
Choosing fabric like linen for your cloth towels means you choose a non hazardous material for your kitchen.
The way linen is harvested doesn’t damage the environment:
- Low water use in production
- Minimal chemicals - linen companies such as Fergusons Irish Linen doesn’t even use chemicals in their production
- 100% biodegradable
- Byproduct utilization - when producing linen, all parts of the flax plant (which what linen is derived from) is used for other purposes (oil, food, etc.) so nothing goes to waste.
On the other hand paper towels constantly produce almost 1.1 million tonnes of trash annually and has gone up 40% in the US since 1988
- Limited recyclability
- Massive contribution to deforestation
- High use of chemicals in production
What's the Best Cloth Towel?
To know this, you have to go with a company that actually knows how to weave good cloth towels, more specifically linen tea towels since those are the best towels to use in the kitchen.
Nothing comes close to Ferguson Irish Linen. With over a century of experience, Ferguson has access to the best weavers of linen and the best production services too.
One thing that Ferguson specializes in are tea towels. Each towel is crafted and finished with an enzyme washing technique that allows the towel to be softer.
Ferguson creates its towels to be hypoallergenic and produces all it’s products in its home base in Ireland (many companies outsource their production to save on costs. This is where the decrease in quality will happen).
Ferguson is having a sale right now.
Come check out some of the tea towels and see which ones you like.
