Hankies are not to be sniffed at!

Long ago, far back in the mists of time (OK, less than three years ago, but it feels longer!), I discovered the It's Not Easy Being Green forum (now the Newhouse Farm forum), and my eyes were opened by some of the strange and wonderful things people did to reduce their impact on the planet - most of which seem quite normal to me now. (I like to think that I've become strange and wonderful myself...)

One thing that we can all do is, wherever possible, use reusable items instead of disposable ones. There are many personal healthcare items that are normally disposable but which have washable alternatives. I won't go into details of what is available as some of you may be of a sensitive nature but, surprisingly, the one that had the biggest ‘yuk!' factor for me was handkerchiefs.

I seem to get through a fair few tissues and often have one up my sleeve, one in my pocket, one under my pillow, and so on. Wanting to get as much use out of them as I can, I rarely threw away a tissue after a single blow but resued it until it resembled a rather grubby doiley. Yet it still felt wrong to keep buying boxes of tissues, particularly as my local shops rarely stocked any recycled ones, so this Christmas, when my husband was wondering what to buy me, I knew that the time had come for me to face my personal demons...

I dropped a few hints to my husband (OK, I gave him a detailed list with illustrations, prices and web links) of ideas for Christmas gifts, and included these lovely organic cotton hankies from Organic-Ally. On Christmas morning I was delighted to discover that he'd bought me the hankies. They were stored in a pretty cardboard box, interleaved so they could be pulled out through the top of the box, just like normal tissues. And they were so soft! Honestly, I spent quite a lot of time simply caressing them and rubbing them against my face, and that was before I'd started on the Christmas gin!

The major problem was, though, that I couldn't bring myself to despoil these lovely, pristine squares of softness. They were hankies, not comfort blankets, but I was definitely beginning to think of them as the latter! I managed to avoid this dilemma for several days as I worked through all the crumpled tissues in my pockets and other nooks and crannies - I still didn't want to throw the tissues away until I'd got as much use out of them as possible.

Eventually, of course, the tissues had all disintegrated and there I was with a runny nose and a clean hanky... it was either the hanky or my sleeve and even I wasn't going to be reduced to that, so finally, a hanky was christened! In only a few days' time I was happily having a full-blown - er - blow into my hankies without a second thought.

My mother regaled me with tales of boiling up my dad's dirty hankies in a saucepan to clean them, a thought which does rather put one off leek and potato soup. However, the Organic-Ally website recommend that you simply wash them in with your normal wash, maybe rinsing them out first if you have a bad cold, or in cold water if you've had a nosebleed. It may be advisable to use a hot wash if flu or nasty colds are going round, and I also iron mine which should kill any lingering pathogens (don't quote me on this - I just tell myself this is probably the case and haven't picked up any nasty bugs yet!). After washing, the hankies are, if anything, even softer than before!

Used tissues can't be put in paper recycling, and many people are wary of putting them in the compost bin because of the pathogens. A recent article in the Times Online (scroll down to ‘Is it better to use tissues or real handkerchiefs?' highlighted the benefits to the environments of using hankies. I was interested to note that ‘According to the European Tissue Symposium, an average European will use 13kg of tissue (including toilet tissue) a year, which is the average weight of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy.' When you consider all the tissues used in Europe, that's a fair few trees-worth of snotty tissues! Add to that the energy used in production and also the impact on landfill, and consider - is it time you did your nose, and the planet, a favour?

I'm very attached to my cloth hankies and still occasionally rub one against my face just for the pleasure of it. I do have to remember to check just how ‘used' it is when I do this though!

Judy

The lovely people at Organic Ally have donated some of their organic goodies so we are running a competition! For a chance to win some organic hankies as well as one of these lovely fairtrade organic gift wrapper bags visit the Organic Ally website and find the answers to the following questions:

 1. Approximately how many square kilometres of wrapping paper was it estimated would end up in rubbish bins this Christmas?

2. How many trees were felled in North America each year for tissue products?

3. Your string bag has stretched through use and now drags on the ground. What do you do?

Then please send your answers to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by March 20th.

 photos (c) Organic Ally 2009