My name is Carrie and I use too many paper towels.

Now, this blog update could be funny but I'm afraid it won't be. After reading an article in Sunset magazine about a household that throws away as much trash in a year as I do in a day I started being reflective.... about trash. Then I realized that the mom/wife of that household had a blog and I sat down to read.... about trash. Or, the lack of, in their house. I was in awe and totally impressed and a little inspired. I shared the blog address (www.zerowastehome.blogspot.com)

and the article with some friends and we began to talk about what the life of this family might be like. My friends told me that their households had given up paper towels and ziploc bags and I began to think. Uh oh. And I began to observe my family and their paper towel usage. Here is what I noticed: In one morning we used 10 paper towels (4 for picking up dog poop- long story, 3 to cook bacon and 2 for holding bagels and one for under a sandwich) . If that is average (and I'm afraid it might be more than that) than we go through 6 rolls a month and 72 rolls in a year . In my 10 years of married life works out to be 720 rolls of PAPER TOWELS. That is embarrassing. How much space in some landfill have I used? How much money have I wasted? If I figure an average of $2 per roll that is $1440. In case you are losing focus because of my impressive math skills - refocus. Paper Towels here people. I am talking paper towels. I use a wasteful product that could easily be replaced with a normal towel or plate that can be reused over and over and over again. So, after I am done with my Costco sized package of towels (that each come individually wrapped with more trash) I think we will be giving up paper towels. Cayden is on board but don't tell Jeff. He will be the most difficult paper towel convert. I think he is addicted. Step 2 - Ziploc bags. I will let you know on that one.

Here is a quote I found about paper towels: "Today, the United States is the biggest consumer of paper towels, consuming 50 percent more towels than Europe and five times more than the folks in Latin America. I believe it too. After all, I know when I go to the grocery store, an unbelievably large portion of the paper products aisle is devoted to paper towels."

Wow. Go USA.