2007-10-10

Paper Towels

I'm at a friends house. It's very early in the morning. Four-thirty-nine right now, but I've been up a while already. I woke up just after four, and decided I'd slept enough.

When I was younger, I used to be able to sleep a lot more. They say older people need less sleep. I'm not that old, but I am older now, than when I was younger.

But regardless, I decided to get up, make some coffee, and get a few things done on the computer.

My friend just bought a new coffee maker. I was able to figure out how it worked, but when I poured my coffee, I noticed the edge of the pot dripped a little bit of coffee onto the counter and cabinet door.

They all do that. Drip when you pour the coffee. I don't understand why they don't make the spout a little larger. That's all it would take.

If this happened at my house, I may have cleaned it up, It was only a couple of drops after all. But as they say. "When in Rome ... "

I noticed the sponge and dish-rag in the sink, and thought about which to use. Then I spied the paper towels hanging under the cabinet next to the sink. Always a safe bet, I decided to go with those.

Now this friend of mine tries to do her part when it comes to preserving resources and keeping the environment clean, so the paper towels are made at least in part from recycled materials, and of course are not bleached or dyed, which means they matched the coffee nicely.

There are many brands of paper towels. Name brands, store brands, generic, etc; but a paper towel is pretty much a paper towel. Some may be thicker and more absorbent and some may be stronger, but for the most part, there isn't much difference.

One thing I have noticed in recent years is that some paper towels are only half as big as they used to be. There are twice as many perforations.

You don't have to use more paper towel than you need for any given job, and "Reduce" is the first part of "Reduce - Reuse - Recycle", which must mean it's the best option.

I noticed something about the paper towels and went looking for the stash to see what brand they were. When I found the extra rolls above the washer and dryer, there was no packaging, so I don't know who to ask, but ...

Shouldn't environmentally friendly paper towels have the extra perforations?