Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Family cloths...

Just heard about the 'family cloth' movement. Some folks seem to be getting quite worked up about it (both pro and con). I wonder how the cost/benefit analysis would be affected by considering, in addition to pathogen exposure and aesthetic experience:

  • credible water footprint estimates (the 37 gal/toilet paper roll everyone cites seems to have come originally from Lloyd Alter at treehugger.com, with no information on how the value was computed)
  • recent news about synthetic fabrics and micro pollutants (of course, family cloths could be made from natural fiber fabric, but seems like most aren't)
  • wastewater treatment costs (what share of sewage does TP comprise? also, if we dramatically reduced TP use would we also stop putting other stuff down the toilet, such as 'flushable' wet wipes and 'biodegradable' tampons? if so, i know an operator at the Palo Alto plant who would be *thrilled* about that...)

What other considerations are missing here?

Anyone out there who's joined the family cloth experiment and is willing to share your experience?