- Now doesn’t that look NICE!?
Kleenex* would now like you to believe that you need to replace your bathroom hand towels with paper ones. AT HOME. Because your dirty, dirty hand towels are going to rub diseasey germs onto you! Please commence freaking out!
The “Innovative dispenser delivers one towel at a time”—we’re familiar with this paper-towel-delivery technology, actually. And it may be lodged on top of any existing bathroom towel rack, where it will “fit in seamlessly with any decor”—that is, making your bathroom at home 127 percent more like the one at a gas station! Seamlessly!
You will be empowered to pay $2.99 (suggested retail) per box of 60 paper towels over and over, while simultaneously being relieved of the inconvenience of your existing FREE cotton towels. Also: The trees are weeping.
*Kleenex’s current tagline is “It feels good to feel.”** This is patently false, you monster marketing people at Kleenex—many, many feelings do NOT feel good to feel, and you know it. I hope you’re having some bad feelings right now, because you deserve them for spreading hand-towel paranoia and trying to kill more trees.
**This is trademarked, so don’t even think about using it for your feeling business.
Do people not wash their hand towels occasionally?
Might be a nice thing to have when you have many guests as during a party?
We still have a roll of paper towels in the kitchen, but we use them sparingly now. We’ve rediscovered the usefulness of cloth towels and cellulose sponges. You try polishing the water spots off a wine glass with a paper towel! A linen one leaves way less lint and does a much better job.
We also figured out that you can use a dish towel for a day or two for drying glasses, dishes and cutlery, and then consign it for table and counter wiping duty for another day or two, after you sponge them off, with no apparent problems. As long as the towel gets to dry thoroughly a couple times a day, it won’t get all funky. It actually feels luxurious to use a cloth towel after using paper ones for so long. Oh, and the sponges? Just give them a thorough rinse in soapy water now and again, squeeze them out well and let them air in a wire rack and they won’t get smelly, either.
I’m not sure what the ecological impact is comparative to paper towels. My instinct is that the marginal extra soap and water on top of our usual washload is minimal.
Grease spills, I still reach for the disposable.
I think we need to hear from “Dear Science” here.
Do cotton towels at home pose any real significant risk of spreading germs? Is it more eco-friendly to wash towels or use paper?
I’m a bachelor – so long as I still have shirts, I’ll always have a place to dry my hands.
that looks so much nastier than using a cotton towel.
@3: You can boil the sponges or nuke them in the microwave to kill bacteria too. It’s awesome.
I basically have the same strategy as you do (grease spills, in addition to gross floor spills, go to paper towels). I have to constantly rearrange towels hanging on the stove handle though, because my boyfriend tends to just bunch them in, which means damp spots stay damp (ew).
@5 That’s the spirit! lol
Naw, man, if you really want that gas station ambiance in your home you need one of these babies.
@9 That’s actually more ecological energy-wise than paper towels.
I had the same response when I saw this ad.
Sorry, Kleenex, even if I can get beyond the outrageous wastefulness of this product (which I can’t!), putting a box of paper towels on a towel rack in your bathroom is tacky x infinity.
@9 Try agan. What you really need is a “continuous loop” towel machine. Preferably with authentic grease stain pattern.
That’s it, I’m boycotting Kleenex.
@10, convince me. Most electricity comes from coal. Even in the NW, some of it does. And electricity from dams has horrible consequences for wildlife.
Yeah, I also had the same thought when I saw this ad (wasteful! gas station bathroom!). I have seen fancy paper hand towels at people’s houses a few times during parties (in a stack by the sink, not from a dispenser)… so, is this the cheap-o version of that?
So, I shouldn’t be using my pants to dry my hands? But seriously. I’m so tired of all this disposable crap. I was raised to use dirty towels to clean large spills (something my wife hates). We have a puppy right now so we are using a lot of paper towels but once he’s housebroken we hardly use any. Outside of puppie messes we only use disposable paper towels when we eat to replace napkins but that is it. Sponges and rags in the kitchen and hand towels everywhere else
Just get one of those hydro-powered air blade dryers.
Problem solved.
@14 – would you rather it came from coal-cracked natural gas or nuclear waste producing fission?
@19 Why is wind or solar not a choice?
@ 17 EWWWWWWWWWWW I HATE YOU.
@14,
Producing paper towels also uses electricity, and lots and lots of water.
@5 I’m a parent of 2 small kids, so as long I have a shirt, my kids will have a place to dry (and clean!) their hands.
I’ve always licked my hands clean
@22, that’s true. And bleach. I’m seriously asking, though: convince me. Is it MORE DAMAGING? I don’t know.
I do know that there is an unfortunate habit (see a certain lab frog kneejerk moron @18, @19) to pretend that electricity just comes out of the air at no environmental cost at all. Trees are a renewable resource too.
To be really ecologically sensitive, just don’t wash your hands. Spreading e. coli and giardia might help reduce the surplus population.
You’ve just reminded me of Mariah Carey singing “you’ve got me feeling emotions.” While this may be technically correct, if not superfluous, someone has yet to be punished for it. At least, not publicly.
@25,
I certainly can’t say for certain, but producing paper requires water and energy for growing and harvesting trees; energy for transporting the lumber; water, bleach, and energy to turn the lumber into paper; energy to transport the paper to its end destination; and then energy to take care of the resulting garbage. You don’t think that’s more damaging than a 30-second electrically generated burst of air produced by a machine that can (presumably) be used for years before it breaks? Even recycled paper saves enormous amounts of energy and water.
@25 trees are not as “renewable” as folks once thought either. Tree farmers have discovered that the new trees do not grow up as big or strong as the previously cut trees. Every new “crop” gets smaller and scrawnier. There are many possible reasons for this, but aside from the decrease of unknown nutrients and loss of “web of life” factors from organisms driven away by the unnatural created environments, there is one thing that gets me to the heart. I have personally had experiences that lead me to believe that trees are sentient. The fewer trees cut down the happier I will be.
@26: Teehee!
Fnarf, making paper towels costs more electricity and oil than a blow dryer.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read…
And hydro-electricty is awesome.
what a bunch of garbage! you jerk-face kleenex people can’t come up with something green like the rest of the world. in the middle of a time when people are finally learning to be conscious of their environment, you geniuses come up with this worthless product. thanks kleenex, you really saved the day! I won’t be buying kleenex products anymore.
@4 Most people are not going to be washing a whole load of hand towels. Those would be washed with the regular laundry therefore using disposable towels would be more of an impact. You would be adding this waste on top of the usual wash load. Plus all the energy it takes to be manufactured and shipped since you will be buying this probably once every couple of weeks, instead of hand towels that can last years.
Honestly Kleenex I agree with comment 32. I mean everything else is going green why can’t yyou. Why can’t we just stick to the normal way of drying hands, air dry, towels and occasionally paper towels. Just be sure to wash your towels like every other day, I mean honestly how often do people actually get sick from using a towel. Kleenex hand towels are just a HUGE waste of cotton!
Over and out, Courtney Roberts, Age 13.
Unfortunately for daycare providers we don’t have an option….we have to use these…it absolutely kills me every time they need to be used….seems like such a waste.
This new Kleenex product is genius. I wonder if you can get the box personalized.
Paper hand towels are better for the environment because the are break down in land fill and recyclable. You can get lots of different types http://www.securitydirect.co.uk/acatalog… perfect for any business.