The Best Paper Towel Alternatives That Actually Work

For most US kitchens, the paper towel alternatives that work are two inexpensive ones used together. Use Swedish dishcloths for wiping counters and spills. Use cotton flannel "unpaper" towels for drying hands and everyday messes. Keep one roll of recycled-content paper towels for raw meat and heavy grease. That setup covers the jobs a roll does, and you can start it for under $10 with a single pack of Swedish cloths.

This page is for households that go through paper towels fast and are choosing between specific products. The categories worth weighing, in the order most people should consider them, are Swedish dishcloths, cotton flannel unpaper towels, cellulose-cotton blend rolls, bamboo rolls, huck towels and cloth napkins, and recycled-content paper towels. We did not run our own tests for this page. It draws on published reviews, brand data and government figures, and it says where that evidence runs out.

The mistake most people make is looking for one product to replace the whole roll. A Swedish dishcloth is a wiper that you wring out and reuse through the day. A flannel towel is a cloth you use once and put in the laundry. They do different jobs. Marley's Monsters, which sells unpaper towels, draws the same line: Swedish cloths for scrub-and-splash cleaning, and unpaper towels for households replacing a high volume of paper across many tasks. If you buy only one type and expect it to do everything, you will reach for the roll again within a week.

Wiping counters and spills: a Swedish dishcloth

This is the easiest swap and the cheapest. Most Swedish dishcloths are about 70% cellulose and 30% cotton. According to Sustainable Kitchen Expert's comparison of five brands, a good one absorbs 15 to 20 times its own weight and replaces 17 to 25 rolls of paper towels over its life.

• Best value: Skoy Cloth. It was $8 to $10 for a 4-pack at the time of that review. It absorbs 15 times its weight, lasts 200+ washes and was rated 4.7 out of 5.
• Most absorbent that also lasts: VOVE or Wettex Classic. Both absorb 20 times their weight. VOVE lasts 200+ washes and was $14 to $16 for a 3-pack. Wettex lasts 150+ washes and was $12 to $15 for a 3-pack.
• Skip if you want long life: SUPERSCANDI. At $17.99 to $19.99 for a 10-pack, it is the cheapest per cloth, and it rates 4.7 out of 5. But the same review found it lasts only 50 washes, against 200+ for Skoy, Full Circle and VOVE.

The longest hands-on test we found is Food Network Kitchen's three-week trial of Cloud Paper's Swish Cloths, which were $16 through the retailer Save Trees. Testers used them on countertops, garbage cans, fingerprints on appliances, pen marks on a table and fridge shelves. The cloths showed no wear, picked up no odors and dried within minutes of being wrung out. The reviewers judged them equal to or better than paper towels for routine cleaning.

Who it is wrong for: anyone who wants to buy once and be done for years. Expect to replace a Swedish cloth every 4 to 6 months (Food Network's figure) or every 6 to 12 months (Sustainable Kitchen Expert's figure). At the end of its life you can compost it.

Drying hands and everyday messes: cotton flannel unpaper towels

If your household tears off paper towels all day to dry hands, catch drips and wipe small faces, the flannel towel is the direct replacement.

• Longest-lasting: Marley's Monsters UNpaper Towels. They are made of GOTS organic cotton. Sustainable Kitchen Expert reports they last 200+ washes, or 2 to 3 years, and lists them at $20 to $28 for a 10-pack. The brand's own site shows pricing starting at $45 for prints and $50 for organic, so check the towel count on any listing before you compare prices. The line is rated 4.8 stars across 687 reviews on the brand's site.
• Best documented over time: Grove Co. These are 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton flannel, and a 12-towel roll was about $30, or $2.50 per towel. Taste of Home's reviewer used them for almost a year. The towels handled spills, dried hands and wiped down appliances. Over that year they stained and shrank, but they kept working.
• Lower price per towel. The Good Trade's roundup lists Geometry (post-consumer recycled materials) at about $3 per unit. It lists Zero Waste Store (GOTS organic cotton) and Cleveland Sewing Co. (cotton-hemp blend) at about $4 each, and Blueland (FSC-certified cotton) at about $5.

Who it is wrong for: anyone without easy access to a washing machine. Flannel only works if dirty towels go through the laundry regularly.

Glass, mirrors and appliance fronts: no proven winner

None of our sources tested any alternative for streak-free glass or mirrors, so we are not naming a pick. The closest evidence is Food Network's finding that Swish Cloths removed fingerprints from appliances. If you try a Swedish cloth on glass, judge the result yourself.

Drying dishes: not tested

We found no published test of huck towels, cloth napkins or any other alternative for drying dishes. We would rather tell you that than guess.

Raw meat and heavy grease: keep a recycled-content roll

This is our judgment, not a finding from the sources. A paper towel that touches raw meat goes straight into the trash, so it never has to be sanitized. If you keep a roll for this job, make it recycled content. NRDC's Issue with Tissue scorecard graded 152 household tissue products. It gave 36 an A or A+ for recycled or responsibly sourced fiber and 80 a D or F for relying on virgin forest fiber. Charmin, Angel Soft and Kirkland-brand products were among the lowest scorers. NRDC finds that recycled-content products carry about one-third the carbon footprint of virgin-fiber ones.

If you would rather use cloth for raw meat too, Sustainable Kitchen Expert's hygiene advice is to color-code cloths by task and sanitize them weekly.

A Swedish cloth works like a thin sponge. The cellulose soaks up liquid, you wring it out and reuse it, and it stiffens as it dries. Food Network notes that this curling and stiffening at the edges helps reduce bacterial growth. A flannel towel works like a small hand towel: you use it, then you wash it. A recycled-content paper towel works like any paper towel, but it is made from recovered fiber instead of freshly cut trees.

The other options, and what the evidence says

Cellulose-cotton blend rolls. These are Swedish-cloth material sold as a tear-off roll, usually 30% cotton and 70% cellulose. The Good Trade lists Earth Ahead at about $6 per unit, Papaya at about $9 (designed to hang for storage) and Three Bluebirds at about $11. Sustainable Kitchen Expert lists Papaya as OEKO-TEX certified and lasting 100+ washes.

The warning comes from a 2026 durability test by Chloven. It found that cellulose fibers began visibly thinning after wash 25, and that cellulose-blend towels lost about 35% of their absorbency after 30 machine washes. The 100% cotton towels kept more than 80% of their absorbency after 50 washes. Chloven sells 100% cotton towels, so it has a stake in that result. Even so, the result fits the shorter lifespans other sources give for cellulose. The practical rule: cellulose suits a cloth you rinse and reuse through the day, and cotton suits a towel you machine wash after every use.

Bamboo rolls. Sustainable Kitchen Expert reports that WOWE Bamboo Paper Towels absorb 3 times their weight, last about 120 washes and fit a standard paper towel holder. That fit is the main appeal. Keep in mind that 3 times their weight is well below the 15 to 20 times of a Swedish cloth.

Huck towels and cloth napkins. None of our sources tested either one, priced them or reported how long they last. They may be useful, but we cannot rank them on evidence.

1. Count what the roll does for a week. Mark each paper towel by job: counters, hands, spills, glass, grease or raw meat, and anything else. When it has worked: you have a tally that shows your two or three biggest jobs. Cost: nothing. Marley's Monsters uses around 20 paper towels a day as the point where a household should buy unpaper towels rather than rely on Swedish cloths alone. If your tally shows you wrap sandwiches or cover bowls with paper towels, beeswax wraps are the better replacement for that job.

2. Replace counter wiping first. Buy one pack of Swedish cloths and use one for all counter and spill wiping. Wring it out after each use and hang it or lay it flat. A dry cloth feels stiff, and that is normal. When it has worked: after a week, you are no longer using paper towels on counters, and the cloth dries within minutes of wringing, as Food Network found. Cost: $8 to $16 depending on the brand, for cloths that last months.

3. Add flannel towels only if your tally calls for them. If hand drying and quick wipes make up a large share of your tally, buy a set of flannel towels. No source gives a sizing rule. The packs reviewed here hold 10 to 12 towels. When it has worked: the roll stops moving for everyday messes, and you have a clean towel within reach until laundry day. Cost: about $2.50 to $5 per towel in the reviews cited here. For a 12-towel set at Grove's price, that is about $30.

4. Set a washing routine before the pile builds. Sustainable Kitchen Expert recommends washing flannel in cold or warm water, air drying or tumble drying on low, and sanitizing weekly. Swedish cloths can go in the dishwasher or laundry, and Food Network notes they can be microwaved or boiled to sanitize. Give raw-meat and bathroom cloths their own color. When it has worked: used towels go straight into the collection bin and come out clean with a regular load. Cost: some time on laundry day.

5. Switch to a recycled roll and demote it. When the current roll runs out, buy a recycled-content roll with an A or A+ grade from NRDC. Keep it in a cabinet instead of on the counter, for raw meat, grease and anything you would not want to wash. When it has worked: that roll lasts weeks instead of days.

6. Check at one month and around wash 25. The MIT life-cycle study, as cited by Sustainable Kitchen Expert, puts the carbon break-even for reusables at 15 to 20 uses, so a towel in daily use passes that point within the first month. If you bought cellulose-blend rolls, watch for thinning after about 25 washes, which is when Chloven's test first saw it. When it has worked: you are buying paper towels far less often, and nothing you bought has already worn out.

Flannel that looks worn out. Taste of Home's reviewer found that after a year of machine washing, her Grove towels were stained and had shrunk. How to recognize it: the towels look dingy and smaller, but they still absorb. What to do: judge them by how well they work, not how they look. In the reviewer's words, the towels "still work really well." Follow the cold or warm wash and low-heat drying advice from Sustainable Kitchen Expert.

Cellulose that stops absorbing. In Chloven's test, cellulose-blend towels lost about 35% of their absorbency after 30 washes. How to recognize it: the cloth looks thin and leaves water behind on the counter. What to do: replace or compost it, and buy 100% cotton for towels that go through the washer after every use.

Buying on star rating alone. SUPERSCANDI and Skoy both rated 4.7 out of 5 in Sustainable Kitchen Expert's review. Yet SUPERSCANDI lasted 50 washes and Skoy lasted 200+. How to recognize it: your "cheap" pack is worn out in weeks. What to do: compare the number of washes a product lasts, not the price per cloth.

One cloth for every job. How to recognize it: the cloth you just used on raw chicken juice is the one you reach for to wipe the counter. What to do: color-code by task and sanitize weekly, as Sustainable Kitchen Expert advises. Or send raw-meat messes to the recycled roll.

A cloth that smells. Food Network's testers noticed no odors over three weeks, and they credit the cloth drying quickly after being wrung out. How to recognize it: a sour smell, usually from a cloth left bunched up and wet. What to do: wring it hard, let it dry flat, and microwave or boil it to sanitize.

Expecting a bamboo roll to act like a Swedish cloth. At 3 times its weight versus 15 to 20 times, it will not soak up a spill the same way. Use it for small wipes, where fitting your existing holder matters more than absorbency.

No washer in your unit. Rely on Swedish cloths and skip the flannel for now. Swedish cloths go in the dishwasher, can be sanitized in the microwave or by boiling, and last months, so they never have to wait for a laundromat trip. A set of flannel towels only works if the dirty ones get washed on a regular schedule.

Young kids at home. This is the household Marley's Monsters has in mind at around 20 paper towels a day across many tasks. Buy a flannel set as well as Swedish cloths, give messy-face and spill towels a different color from kitchen towels, and keep the recycled roll for the worst messes. Consider a set of 12 your starting point, not your limit, because none of our sources say how many a busy family needs.

Cutting the grocery bill. Earth911 puts the average household's paper towel spending at $114.41 a year in 2022, with heavier users near $200. Sustainable Kitchen Expert gives a lower range of $60 to $100. A $8 to $10 pack of Swedish cloths is the cheapest place to start. Our sources give no prices for recycled-content rolls, so we cannot tell you whether switching brands saves or costs money.

Composting at home. Swedish cloths are compostable at the end of their life, according to both Food Network and Sustainable Kitchen Expert. The EPA notes that "some composting" of tissue products exists, but it did not find composting to be widespread. Whether used paper towels are accepted in your local compost program is not something our sources cover.

The money case depends on how many uses you get from each cloth. Sustainable Kitchen Expert puts reusables under a cent per use after about 50 washes, compared with 3 to 8 cents for a disposable towel. It estimates savings of $120 to $300 over two to three years. For a real-world comparison, Taste of Home's reviewer had been spending about $16 every couple of weeks on paper towels before switching to a $30 set of 12 Grove towels.

Be careful with these numbers. Sustainable Kitchen Expert is a small blog, and it cites the MIT break-even figure without linking the study. The direction of the finding is consistent across sources, but treat the exact figures as estimates.

The waste figures come from firmer sources. The EPA's product-specific data show that tissue, napkins and paper towels produced 1.09 million tons of waste in 1960 and 3.8 million tons in 2018. That is 1.3% of all US municipal solid waste, and the EPA "did not identify any significant recovery of tissue products for recycling." Paper as a whole does far better. The EPA's national overview reports a 68.2% recycling rate for paper and paperboard in 2018, but that rate comes from boxes and other recoverable paper, not from used towels. Earth911 estimates Americans use about 13 billion pounds of paper towels a year, roughly 40 pounds per person. The EPA has published no newer comprehensive data than its 2018 figures.