Get Sewing and Save Some Trees

We use a lot of paper in our day to day, but it doesn’t have to be that way!

[Creative Commons photo by Eunice]

Americans go through 700 pounds of paper products per person on average every single year. That’s a lot of trees! On top of things like paper towels and tissues, billions of menstrual products end up in the bin. In 1988, a field study found that 6.5 billion tampons and 13.5 billion sanitary pads and their packaging end up in America’s waste stream annually. You’ve got a weapon to fight all this waste right in your craft room: your sewing machine or even a simple needle and thread! Here are a few ways you can stitch your way to less waste.

• Make your own cloth napkins with this simple tutorial by Chara Michele.
• Give paper towels the boot! Sew, Mama, Sew! shows you how to make your own patchwork kitchen towels.
• eHow has a great tutorial for making your own rolled hem handkerchief that doesn’t even require a sewing machine.
• Whip up a few cloth pads with this tutorial on making menstrual pads! If you’re concerned with switching to cloth pads, Pleasure Puss has a great resource page on how simple caring for cloth pads can be.
• Not a seamstress but want to make some cloth napkins? That’s alright! Birmingham Bargain Mom’s got you covered with her no sew cloth napkins!

Whether you make just one or two of these changes or decide to tackle them all, good on you for working to reduce your contribution to the landfill!

How else can we sew our way to less waste?