Among the myriad gripes that people seem to have with my generation (the ever-troublesome Millennials) is that we are killing industries by not participating in the consumption of various goods in the same way as our parents and grandparents. One of these supposedly dying industries is that of disposable paper napkins. You probably didn’t hear it here first, but yes, apparently Millennials are killing the napkin industry.
My family was on the cutting edge of this napkinless trend. My parents apparently acted like Millennials well before they raised any. They’re sort of hipster that way. In short, we did not have paper napkins growing up.
The solution employed by young adults today? It’s not complex. They use paper towels instead. This is indeed also what we did 20 years ago. If you had a real mess that needed cleaning, you got yourself a paper towel, but we did not by default grab a paper towel for use as a napkin for every meal. Why? Well, “paper towels are expensive.”
However, I have now married into a family with a strong tradition of napkin use, and my husband is adamant about the need for them within our household. I understand why he is attached to napkins. They are definitely convenient: I have found myself using them daily with a messy toddler. Napkins are less expensive and composed of less paper than paper towels, so we are being less wasteful than if we used paper towels with the same regularity… but I know that in the not-too-distant past I managed to use the “paper towel alternative” with much less regularity than I currently use the napkins.
The throwaway culture is not of Jesus. The other is my brother, beyond every barrier of nationality, social extraction or religion.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) February 15, 2017
I see my own internal struggle with napkin usage as emblematic of the “throwaway culture” to which Pope Francis frequently refers. We use them literally every day and literally throw them away, to the detriment of the environment.
It's the same reason I don't cover my food with wax paper or a paper towel to put it in the microwave (to my husband's mild chagrin). I'd rather clean the microwave (and am willing to let it be generally dirtier than others are comfortable with) than waste a sheet of something every time I choose to microwave some food.
At times, this nagging feeling seems borderline silly or frivolous. Are there not greater concerns about which to worry? Should I be investing this energy elsewhere? Despite this worry, I strongly dislike the moments when I realize I have become indifferent to the quantity of napkins I’ve recently used on a small face and hands. While one can take this martyr’s quote and easily leap straight to his context (the evils of genocide), I think St. Max1 is still on point here:
The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers.A friend asked at a recent gathering if we thought “people” were going to “do anything” about climate change in the next couple years. I understand that she meant that the government and various industries were going to have to implement drastic changes in order to make a major impact in any environmental trends. However, I don’t want to just leave it to the “other.” Permanently changing one’s habits is notoriously challenging, and I’m under no illusions that altering or eliminating our household’s napkin consumption will decrease our environmental impact any more than negligibly. However, if I don’t feel compelled to change my lifestyle at all, why would any major industries think conservation is important enough to engage fully?
In a tiny, tiny way, I hope that considering the world each time I would be tempted to reach for a napkin improves my disposition toward charity in greater ways. I hope this exercise is an example of what Christ meant when he said, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much,”2 and maintains the “delicacy of respect and fraternity,” as Pope Francis exhorted the other day, in my care for our common home.
Ideal solutions are elusive: if I try to eliminate the paper altogether, I’d still have to research whether the water or heat involved in washing a more sustainable napkin option is actually more energy efficient and less wasteful of resources. However, if there is some small change we can make to value the world a bit more, I would like to make it. I would like to praise God in creation to the greatest extent of my powers. While all of us will continue to sin and fall short of the glory of God, we must try, in ways both napkin-sized and paper towel-sized.
1 ...imilian Kolbe. Also, with respect to the context of his quote, I think the beauty of a true statement is that it should be applicable to situations large and small.↩
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