Snot-free landfills?

We try to live as "green" as we can, and because of that we have some rules to help prevent waste in our house. One of those rules is no paper towels. We have lived without paper towels for about 3 1/2 years, and I'm pretty proud of that (dish towels do the same job, as it turns out!). Paper waste, including household paper towels, is the largest contributor to landfill waste by residences.

To that end, I've been saying for a while now that we need to find a way to stop using Kleenexes (or facial tissues or whatever your term of choice is). They are every bit as wasteful as paper towels, and there are logical non-disposable replacements: handkerchiefs. Until this year, I've been all talk and no action.

But now, we're changing! Jellybean has a runny nose this week, and I have brought in our handkerchiefs: old burp cloths from when they were babies. Jellybean much prefers them to Kleenexes because they're softer, and in fact she has voluntarily wiped her own nose more times than I can count. This from the kid who used to run away at the suggestion of wiping her nose.

So far, so good. I hope we can keep it up when we all have colds, so that remains to be seen. But my resolve will be strong on this. (I do have one box of Kleenex for guests so they don't have to submit to our reusable method unless they'd like to, which would be lovely.)