We all need to use towels, and disposable paper towels and plastic sponges are often the first things that people will reach for, which is exactly why they create so much waste. In the US alone, over 20.8 billion paper towel roles are thrown away each year. That’s equivalent to as much as 110 million trees. The tragic thing about these figures is that they are avoidable by using reusable or biodegradable cleaning products. This is where the Swedish Dish Cloth or Eco-Friendly Sponge Cloth steps in.
What are Swedish Dish Cloths - How did it all start?
In 1949, the civil engineer Curt Lindquist in Norrköping, Sweden, had grown tired of rags that didn’t dry properly. Using a meat grinder, he pressed cellulose, cotton, and salt into a cloth that eventually met his expectations. And so the Swedish dishcloth was born!
What is it?
Swedish dish cloths are designed to be a sustainable alternative to paper towels for drying and cleaning. Instead of running for a massive wad of paper towels to clean up a large spill, one dish cloth is enough, because they soak up 15 times their weight in liquid thanks to a material mix of cotton and plant fibres (cellulose). This also makes them a great replacement for old fashioned kitchen rags, which usually struggle with lots of liquid.
Essentially, Swedish Dishcloths are a natural evolution of an old concept, improving upon the weaknesses of less durable or useful towels and cloths to provide great value and lasting utility. When you’re finished cleaning, you can simply chuck them in with your regular laundry, readying them for more cleaning tomorrow. If there’s no laundry on for the day, you can also just give it a long soak in some soapy water to wring all the dirt out and make it good as new! And because they’re designed with sustainability in mind, they can last for months and be composted easily at the end, biodegrading as if they were never there.
What actually is their impact?
So, we’re talking a lot about the sustainability of Swedish Dishcloths, but just how impactful are they compared to their traditional paper and kitchen towel counterparts? Well, producing our 2 pack of dish cloths takes about the same amount of time, energy and materials as it does to produce one roll of disposable paper towels. And while yes, it does take energy and resources to clean dish cloths, it doesn’t compare to the cost of the many, many rolls of paper towels that would be needed to clean up over the 12 month lifespan of 2 dish cloths.
We also make an effort to source our products sustainably and with the lowest feasible environmental cost. We design our dish cloths here in the UK and manufacture them in Sweden. It all starts with wood waste from sustainably certified forests, which is converted into cellulose in the pulp factory. The journey then continues into the dishcloth factory where the cellulose is transformed into viscose and mixed with cotton, and then gradually becomes a finished cloth. Once the cloth reaches the end of its life, it makes its way to the compost, where it decomposes. The journey starts in the forest and ends in the soil. The circle is closed!
This is doing a lot more than most paper towel companies, who have high fossil fuel and power usage in paper towel production cycles, while taking up a significant amount of land for industrial scale tree farming. In 2012, MIT found that the cost of production reached up to 15 grams of C02 emissions per 2 single sheets of paper towels, revealing the true cost of excessive consumption.
And there’s a heck of a lot of impact on your wallet. One 2 pack of dish cloths costs less than £5, which is cheaper than buying 2 big rolls of paper towels. Taken over the course of a year where you’re buying 1 roll of paper towels a month (which is quite a lowball), the savings add up quite quickly with the long lifespan of the Swedish dish cloths.
Concerned About Microplastics? Here’s Why Plastic-Free Swedish Dish Cloths Are a Healthier Choice
From a health perspective, Swedish dish cloths have key benefits over paper and all purpose cleaning cloths. Most significantly, they sidestep the issue of microplastics. Microplastics refers to all the tiny particles of plastic that make their way into the human body through a variety of different sources, like food, beauty products and from the general environment. They’ve become a massive talking point over the last few years as scientists have begun to study their effects on health more closely. The current consensus from the scientific community on the current health effects is a resounding ‘we don’t know’, which isn’t exactly what you want to hear about anything you’re putting in your body. Despite this, it's hard to think that they’re doing anything good for your health.
On March 16th 2026, Netflix will be delving deeper into the issue of microplastics and fertility in the new eye-opening documentary 'The Plastic Detox'. The documentary follows six couples with unexplained infertility as they lower their exposure to plastics in hopes it helps them conceive. We are happy to see the issue of microplastics discussed on a mainstream platform this spring!
Preventing yourself from consuming microplastics is straightforward when you have the right tools. Kitchenware plays a huge role in this, because most microplastics come from plastic cookware bleeding chemicals into your food. Blue multipurpose dishcloths, and a good amount of cheap paper ones, are also made with synthetic fibres that contain microplastics as a result of the production process. Happily, our range of kitchenware doesn’t have this problem, because we use natural materials such as bamboo, beechwood, coconut and cotton. Our dish cloths are the same, because they’re made of natural fibres that are completely plastic free to let you finish the washing up worry free.
So is making the switch to zero plastic Swedish Dish Cloths in your home worth it?
There are a great many ways to begin reducing your environmental impact, but getting yourself a Swedish dish cloth to replace your constant stream of paper towels is certainly a good place to start. And, even if you already have a kitchen towel, you’ll be able to notice the difference with a cloth that is more absorbent, longer lasting and a rather pretty addition to your kitchen. Outside of the kitchen too, these make a great replacement for other surface cleaners like microfibre cloths for the bathroom because of how they clean cheaply and effectively, and without any nasty plastic or linen residue for your countertops. And they, with all that money you save on paper towels this year, go ahead and reinvest it in more sustainable solutions so you can start living the non-toxic, sustainable lifestyle you deserve!
SOURCES
https://mainlineshift.com/blog/beginner-breakdown/yearly-waste-at-a-glance/
