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Naio's avatar
Naio
Explorer II
Mar 17, 2015

Have you found a greener alternative to wipes?

I never had them in my S&B but, these past 6 months on the road, I have gone through an enormous number of baby wipes!

They are so convenient for cleaning dishes, hand washing, wiping up spills, getting spots off my clothes...

Well, today I happened upon the info that they are also a big problem for waste disposal. I try not to do stuff that makes the world worse for other people, when I can help it, so now I am thinking about alternatives.

I guess biodegradeable paper towels would be at least a little better? Washable rags, like I use in my S&B would be best -- but both of these come with incrementally more hassle when camping. Hauling water, hauling weight, doing laundry.

What do you folks use?
  • We use soap, water and a dish towel. We washed the kids diapers when they were little. Long ago people were "green" not so much any more.
  • Naio wrote:
    They are so convenient for cleaning dishes, hand washing, wiping up spills, getting spots off my clothes.
    Sponge, paper towel, cotton towel.
    Life did actually exist before these wretched things. Just go back to what was done before.
  • Baby wipes will clog up drainage pipes in a heartbeat. (Don't ask how I know). Even the ones that are suppose to be dissoluble causes problems and costly Roto-Rooter bills.

    If you truly want to be "green" your best solution is a simple wash cloth and water.

    If you want something really practical, durable, but still disposable, go to any Lowe's or Home Depot and pick a box of shop towels or a roll of shop towels. We quit using brand name paper towels a long time ago and use shop towels for everything now. They come is a blue color and a white color. They are paper, but a heavy duty paper material that can be rinsed and reused a time or two. (They make "Bounty" look puney!) Because it's just a paper (like a very heavy paper towel), you can burn them in your campfire, or toss out with the rest of your trash. Dry them out and use them again until they simply fall apart. I never tried to see how fast they dissolve, and you will NOT want to flush them down a toilet.

    Lowe's and Home Depot also sell cloth shop towels. They are often in a bundle and you get like 50 of them for a couple bucks. We've been using these around the house for months now. Machine washable, or because they are so cheap, just toss away if you get grease or oil on them or they stain and look nasty. They are great too.

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