About Hankettes Hand-Made Natural Organic Products

How many $$$ and trees can you save by using Hankettes?The short answer is at least $50/year and potentially far greater than 11.5 million trees per year!!!For a more in depth answer – please read on.

Why Hankettes products?We are a small family run company – a micro business - which is, and always has been (since 1996) devoted to making and offering products which replace disposables with organic cotton reusables.

There is no “greenwashing” going on around here.We are proud to say we grow as much food as we are able, recycle, reuse, and reduce our footprints as much as possible.We pay our employees a fair Canadian wage and employ locally. We make all our products on our co-op acreage here on the Sunshine Coast of BC.We buy our supplies as close to home as possible.The fabrics we use are all made with GOTS (Global Organic Textiles Standards).Our body care line is made with all natural, safe ingredients.

While we realize you may be able to buy organic cotton products at a lesser cost elsewhere, those items are generally made by large companies in third world countries where workplace and pay standards are poor.These companies are founded on profit, not on helping the environment.Only once it became profitable to be green did they become “green”.Also, even though large companies have bigger clout when it comes to decreasing environmental impact, small Mom and Pop organizations suffer as their business is taken away by the “cheaper” green products. This affects local economies with reduced employment and reduced cash flow.

When you buy Hankettes products you are purchasing products we’ve made with quality and care.You are also supporting a micro-business whose goals have always been about reducing waste and pollution.

Why replace disposable tissue with reusable organic cotton Hankettes? 480,000 tons of disposable paper facial tissues are projected to be consumed in 2010 in the USA alone.

In order to produce them it will cost the earth:

Nearly 11.5 million trees (approximately 21,000 football fields of forest)

Nearly 12.5 billion litres of water (enough to fill almost 5000 olympic pools)

Nearly 2 billion kwh of power (enough to power 240,000 homes for a year)

Nearly 8.2 million litres of oil (enough to fill almost 327 olympic pools)

Nearly 1.5 million cubic yards of landfill space (enough to fill 565 olympic pools)

Nearly 2.9 million lbs of air pollution (almost as much as 60,000 average car’s pollution for a year)

Why organic cotton Hankettes instead of conventionally grown cotton?

While cotton crops cover just 2.5% of the worlds cultivated land, it uses a disproportionate amount of chemicals. 10% of the world’s pesticides and 25% of the world’s insecticides.Among these chemicals is the pesticide Aldecarb, which is so acutely dangerous, one drop on the skin can kill a human.It has been reported in groundwater in 16 states. The nitrogen synthetic fertilizers used produce N2O emissions which are 300x more potent than CO2 as greenhouse gas.

It is projected there are nearly 115 million households in the USA in 2010.

If every household replaced one box of disposable tissue with 10 conventionally grown cotton handkerchiefs, while it would save 163,000 trees (approximately 297 football fields of forest), it would also use approximately 11.4 million lbs of chemicals.

If every household replaced just one box of disposable tissue with 10 organic cotton handkerchiefs, it would save 163,000 trees and would not dump 11.4 million lbs of toxic chemicals into our water, land and air.

All numbers are based only on facial tissue demand, which comprises 6% of all disposable tissues produced (which has a projected grand total of a whopping 8 million tons in 2010 for the USA alone!). The others are 12% napkins, 36% paper towels, 45% toilet paper and 1% other.

Just imagine the savings to our earth if everyone stopped using disposable paper tissue products and used reusable organic cotton instead! Here are the figures per US household per year of paper tissues used:8.3 lbs facial tissue, 16.6 lbs of paper napkins, 50 lbs paper towels, 63 lbs toilet paper, 1.4 lbs other.A total of nearly 140lbs paper tissues thrown away each year.

The Hankettes Solution: If every household in the USA alone replaced facial tissues, paper napkins and paper towels with Hankettes’ organic cotton alternatives it would reduce the total amount of tissues thrown away from 140lbs to 65lbs – a reduction of 54%.Because we use only organic cotton, it could also reduce the amount of chemicals used for conventional cotton by 102 million tons.

Dollar value of this solution: The tissues in a box of 112 count 3 ply Kleenex weigh .52lb.Approximate average cost of a box of facial tissues is $3.From our figures above, we know a household uses 8.3lbs which translates into 16 boxes of tissue a year times $3.That’s $48 a year on facial tissue alone!Buy 10 Hankettes bulk hankies for $49.90 or a box of 8 for $44.99.

We realize you need to wash them, but what are a few extra pieces of fabric in your washer when you are doing the load anyway?Really, it’s unlikely you will be using any extra soap, energy or water than you are already using.

You will save a lot of money and be helping save our earth at the same time.While you are at it, why not replace your napkins and paper towels for even greater savings?

References:

www.ota.com/organic/environment/cotton_environment.html

www.panna.org/files/conventionalCotton.dv.html

www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Cotton.html

www.adeq.state.ar.us/air/ozone/cars.htm

www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp

www.americanforests.org/global_releaf/grants/faq.php