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| Cooking Little is a kitchen shopping and tips blog for urban dwellers and anyone who cooks in a small kitchen. Beyond the kitchen, we feature diversions such as culinary travel spots, classes and tasting events. |
Twist Natural Cleaning If kicking the paper towel habit is harder than you thought, then get hooked on Twist natural and eco-friendly cleaning tools. The conventional wisdom is if you do something for 28 days you will form a new habit. Try the Twist Sponge Cloths for a month and when you think about reaching for a paper towel remember that you like money and trees and you’ll be saving both. At $3.99 for a three pack and thousands of cleaning uses compared to one per paper towel, it beats whatever you are spending on paper towels each month. You can use Twist with a clear conscious too. This company is frugal with their packaging and reuses production waste. At Twist they mix a serious commitment to the environment with a heavy dose of whimsy -- the cardboard packaging can be folded into bird feeders and other products bear names such as the Dish Dumpling, the Ravoli Scrubby and the Naked Sponge. Our overall impressions…Twist natural cleaning tools make big picture and bottom line sense. They last long, are a pleasure to use and biodegrade. Now, it seems silly to use green household cleaners with paper towels and sponges that waste resources and are dumped in landfills. Read on for the down and dirty details of our product testing, other product pictures and some composting tips for these biodegradable beauties. $2.79-$4.99 for multi-packs AT OUR GREEN HOUSE All the Twist scrubbers and sponges are straight forward, but the Sponge Cloth and the European Sponge Cloth do take a little adjustment. They arrive supple in the packaging, but dry hard. The question becomes how do you want to dry and store the sponge cloth?
- One tester was happy to drape the sponge cloth over the faucet to dry and with a light dampening it is flat again ready to clean, wipe and absorb.
- Others said they would want to store this product out of sight and one idea was to dry hanging over a simple towel rack inside a cabinet. Another suggested clipping to the towel rack so it dries relatively flat and ready to fully absorb spills. The white sponge cloths will show dirt but a run through the dishwasher brings them back. Without a dishwasher, a low-simmer in a pot with water and a little baking soda did the job. The color pack minimizes this issue and the bonus for the precise is they can color code use – one color for surfaces another for dishes.
When Twist products have done their job they biodegrade in the ground or in a composters. Twist company president, Brian Ross, says the most efficient way to biodegrade Twist products is compost bins and using this method they will break down in less then 60 days. No composter? Bury them in any dirt in your yard such as garden beds and they biodegrade in about 7 weeks.
Eco-container gardeners know they can recycle aluminum cans and styro peanuts as drainage in containers. Brian Ross assures us that spent Twist products can be used as drainage in containers. Just remember since they biodegrade in about 7 weeks they will only provide drainage for the better part of a North East growing season. Therefore, it is best to combine these products with another forms of drainage and use them in plants likely to need repotting the following season.   |
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