Paper Towel Waste Statistics & Their Possible Management Practices

By Mark Malamud, founder of The Giro Company

Last updated: September 25, 2026

Paper towels feel harmless: grab a sheet, wipe, toss. But that habit adds up, and a lot of the numbers floating around online about paper towel waste are unsourced, outdated, or contradict each other.

So we rebuilt this page as a straightforward statistics resource. Every number below links to the agency, industry group, or peer-reviewed study it came from, with the data year. If we couldn't trace a figure back to a credible source, we took it out.

Key paper towel waste statistics at a glance

A note on rounding: figures are shown as the source published them, or rounded to one decimal place; ranges (like 60–64%) are kept as ranges.

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<a href="https://www.thegirocompany.com/blogs/news/paper-towel-waste-statistics"><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0618/4291/5464/files/paper-towel-waste-statistics-stat-card.jpg?v=1790379392" alt="Paper towel waste statistics (EPA, AF&amp;PA, EIA)" width="600" height="600"></a><br>Source: <a href="https://www.thegirocompany.com/blogs/news/paper-towel-waste-statistics">Paper Towel Waste Statistics, The Giro Company</a>

How much paper towel waste does the U.S. create?

The best national number comes from the EPA's municipal solid waste data. In 2018, tissue paper and towels made up about 3.8 million tons of U.S. municipal solid waste, or 1.3% of everything Americans threw away (EPA, 2018 data). That category includes paper towels, facial tissues, and napkins. It does not include toilet paper, which goes down the drain instead.

That figure has climbed steadily, from about 1.1 million tons in 1960 to 3.8 million tons in 2018, according to the same EPA table.

Zoom out, and paper of all kinds is one of the largest materials in U.S. trash. In 2018, Americans generated 67.4 million tons of paper and paperboard (23.1% of municipal solid waste), and 17.2 million tons of it went to landfills (EPA, 2018 data).

Why paper towels almost never get recycled

A lot of people assume paper towels go in the recycling bin because "it's just paper." Usually they can't, and the data backs that up: the EPA says it did not identify any significant recycling of tissue products, although some are composted (EPA, 2018 data).

There are two main reasons:

• Short fibers and wet-strength additives. Paper towel fibers are short, and many towels are treated to hold together when wet, which makes them a poor input for making new paper.
• Contamination. Used towels are full of food, grease, and cleaning products, which can spoil a batch of clean recyclable paper.

Compare that with paper overall. 60–64% of U.S. paper available for recovery was recycled in 2024, about 46 million tons (AF&PA, 2024 data). Europe recycled 75.1% of the paper and board it consumed in 2024 (European Paper Recycling Council, 2024 data). Paper towels sit almost entirely outside that system. (More detail: can you recycle paper towels?)

Composting paper towels is possible in some cases. A towel used to dry hands or wipe up water or plain food spills can usually go in a compost pile. One soaked in grease or chemical cleaners shouldn't.

The landfill and methane problem

Most used paper towels end up in a landfill, and that's where the climate impact shows up. As paper and other organic material breaks down without oxygen, it produces methane.

• Methane is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere (EPA).
• Municipal solid waste landfills were the third-largest source of human-caused methane in the U.S., about 14.4% of those emissions in 2022 (EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program, 2022 data).

Paper towels are only one slice of what's in a landfill. But they're a slice that's easy to shrink.

What it takes to make paper towels

The environmental impact of paper towels starts long before the trash can. Pulp and paper manufacturing is energy- and chemical-intensive:

• Energy (U.S.): the paper industry used 11% of all U.S. manufacturing energy in 2018 (U.S. EIA, Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey, 2018). EIA notes that most of it was renewable energy, largely wood residues and mill byproducts such as bark and sawdust.
• Energy (global): pulp and paper uses nearly 6% of global industrial energy (Barrios et al., 2026, peer-reviewed). That's a share of industrial energy, not all of the world's energy.
• Air releases: paper manufacturing accounted for 19% of air releases reported to EPA's Toxics Release Inventory in 2023, led by methanol (EPA TRI National Analysis, 2023 data). If you're curious what's in the towels themselves, see do paper towels have chemicals?

These figures cover the whole paper industry, not just paper towels. We haven't found a credible, current source that breaks out trees, water, or energy for paper towels alone, so we don't publish a per-roll or per-ton number here.

Paper towels vs. reusable alternatives

Here's how the most common options compare:

Swedish dishcloths are the swap we make at home and the one we build. A Giro cloth is made from 70% cellulose (plant-based wood pulp) and 30% cotton, absorbs up to 15x its weight, and has a sisal scouring corner for stuck-on messes. One cloth replaces up to 15 rolls of paper towels, lasts about 2–3 months with regular washing, and is plastic-free and made from biodegradable plant fibers. If you want to try one, here are our Swedish dishcloths. For a broader roundup, see our guide to paper towel alternatives.

Washable cloth rags and napkins are the classic low-tech option. Keep a drawer of rags for spills and cloth napkins for meals.

Recycled-content paper towels are a reasonable middle step if you're not ready to give up disposables. They still end up in the trash, but they use recovered fiber instead of virgin pulp.

Hand dryers (for offices and public restrooms): a peer-reviewed MIT life cycle assessment found "with a high degree of confidence" that high-speed hand dryers have a lower environmental impact than paper towels, while standard warm-air dryers couldn't be clearly distinguished from paper towels (Gregory et al., International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2013; the study was funded by Dyson).

Reusables do need water and energy for washing. But you're washing them alongside laundry or dishes you'd run anyway, instead of making, shipping, and landfilling a new sheet every time.

What businesses and policymakers are doing

Workplaces go through a lot of paper towels, so some are closing the loop. Commerzbank, working with Essity's Tork PaperCircle program, has collected used paper hand towels separately at selected offices since 2016 and sent them to a mill to become toilet paper. The bank reports about 264 tonnes of paper returned to the material cycle as of September 2025, and says the program saves around 20% of residual waste (Commerzbank, 2025).

On the policy side, EU law requires member states to recycle at least 85% of paper and cardboard packaging waste by the end of 2030 (EU Directive 2018/852). That target covers packaging, not paper towels, but it shows how much recovery is possible when collection systems exist.

For offices and facilities, the practical options are:

• High-speed hand dryers in high-traffic restrooms
• Separate collection for used hand towels where a recycling service like PaperCircle is available
• Recycled-content towels and one-at-a-time dispensers where paper towels stay
• Reusable cloths for kitchens and cleaning closets

Small habits that cut paper towel use at home

• Keep a reusable cloth where you reach for paper. Most daily wipe-ups don't need a disposable.
• Use select-a-size sheets if you do buy paper towels. Most spills don't need a full sheet.
• Shake before you dry. A few shakes over the sink means one sheet is usually enough.
• Swap in cloth napkins at meals.

Frequently asked questions

Are paper towels really that bad for the environment?

They add up. Tissue paper and towels made up about 3.8 million tons of U.S. municipal waste in 2018, and EPA found no significant recycling of them. Most end up in landfills, which are the third-largest U.S. source of human-caused methane.

Can you recycle paper towels?

Usually not. Their fibers are short, they're often treated to stay strong when wet, and used towels are contaminated with food, grease, or cleaners, which would contaminate the raw materials for recycling. Check with your local program, but in most places they go in the trash or, if clean enough, the compost.

How much paper towel waste does the U.S. produce?

The EPA's most recent product-level figure is about 3.8 million tons of tissue paper and towels (excluding toilet paper) in 2018, or 1.3% of U.S. municipal solid waste. EPA doesn't publish a separate number for paper towels alone.

What is the best alternative to paper towels?

For most kitchens, a Swedish dishcloth is an easy swap. It's highly absorbent, lasts about 2–3 months with regular washing, and is made from biodegradable plant fibers. Cloth rags work well for heavier cleaning, and high-speed hand dryers are a good fit for public restrooms.

Is it better to use paper towels or a hand dryer?

From a climate standpoint, a high-speed hand dryer usually wins. A peer-reviewed MIT study found high-speed dryers have a lower impact than paper towels with a high degree of confidence. Standard warm-air dryers weren't clearly better or worse than paper towels.

How long does it take for a paper towel to decompose?

In a healthy compost pile, a clean paper towel can break down in a few weeks. In a landfill, where there's little oxygen, it breaks down much more slowly. The bigger problem in a landfill is that as it decomposes, it can produce methane, a greenhouse gas the EPA says is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide.

Can I compost my used paper towels?

It depends. If the towel was only used for water, hands, or plain food scraps, yes. If it's soaked in grease, oil, or chemical cleaners, keep it out of your compost.

Cite this page

If you use these statistics, please link to this page and to the original sources above.

Malamud, M. (2026, September 25). Paper towel waste statistics. The Giro Company. https://www.thegirocompany.com/blogs/news/paper-towel-waste-statistics

One small swap

You don't have to go paper-free overnight. Start with the spot where you grab paper most, usually the kitchen counter, and put a reusable cloth there. If you'd like to try ours, Giro Swedish dishcloths are a good place to start.