Unpublished Works: Nonfiction

The Luxurious Sustainable Cloth Napkin Life

By Elizabeth Kelch

Written 27 June 2017

When people are in my home for a meal or snack, I offer them a napkin. All the napkins in my home are cloth and so often my guests say, “Oh, I don’t want to use your good napkins”, preferring to use a paper throw away item. I suspect they think something to just be thrown away is less trouble. Cloth napkins have a feeling of indulgence and extravagance.  How decadent we feel when we use them.

Sustainably-minded people are aware re-use is one of the best things we can do for Mother Earth. So much of the industrial pollution and water contamination we’re so offended by is generated from the manufacture of throwaway products, and the continued manufacture of more and more of the same product. A load of laundry can be significantly more sustainable than filling landfills with single use items.

In the debate as to the cost to the environment of laundering them vs buying paper ones, there is some controversy. At https://www.treehugger.com/are-paper-napkins-more-environmentally-friendly-4858552, the good folks worked with a life cycle analysis expert to determine some specifics on either side of the debate. They’ve done a bit of math and drawn some conclusions. “Surprisingly in the restaurant scenario the paper napkin is the winner, while at home, the cloth napkin is king. And the article was written many moons ago, so things on the restaurant scene may have turned. More recently https://www.greenlodgingnews.com/where-do-you-stand-on-the-paper-versus-cloth-napkin-debate/ has weighed in on the debate and addresses the widely varying options on both sides that can tip the scales significantly. 

The cloth napkins in my home are not fine linen, expensive, or of a high-end quality. They are simple cotton and have seen lots of action through many years of use. I’m always surprised when people refer to them as my “good napkins”. They are simply the napkins I choose to use.

Let’s all indulge in the luxury of cloth napkins?