# How it's made paper towel episode
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 26, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882 "2015-05-26T15:13:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/1 "2015-05-26T15:13:39Z")
I enjoy this show but the recent claim that in the U.S. each year 50 trillion roles of paper towels are produced seems a bit off.
So, is it million or billion?
Perhaps this belongs in cafe?
---
### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/2 "2015-05-26T15:31:55Z")
> [@Laggard](#):
>
> I enjoy this show but the recent claim that in the U.S. each year 50 trillion roles of paper towels are produced seems a bit off.
>
> So, is it million or billion?
>
> Perhaps this belongs in cafe?
If 50 trillion were right that would be more than 100,000 rolls for each person in the US. And even if the US supplies the world it would be more than 7 thousand rolls per person or about 20 rolls of paper towels per person per day.
If the figure is 50 billion and it just supplied the US, it would be half a roll per person per day. That seems a touch high, but certainly believable. 50 million is much too low. That’s about one roll for every ten people per year.
---
### Author:  [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/3 "2015-05-26T16:04:00Z")
Thanks. Perhaps they meant individual sheets?
---
### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/4 "2015-05-26T17:52:09Z")
> [@Laggard](#):
>
> Thanks. Perhaps they meant individual sheets?
Full or half size?
---
### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/5 "2015-05-26T18:13:22Z")
> [@OldGuy](#):
>
> If the figure is 50 billion and it just supplied the US, it would be half a roll per person per day. That seems a touch high, but certainly believable.
I had a friend who could go thru a couple of rolls a day by herself. She wouldn’t use cloth towels in her kitchen, and she seemed to be physically incapable of tearing off just one paper towel at a time. If she rinsed off her hands while cooking, she’d have to pull of at least 4 or 5 towels, pat her hands dry, then toss the towels. Repeat several times in the course of making dinner, not to mention wiping up messes or serving snacks to her kids.
As I watched her one night, I was thinking how lucky that her husband was so well-paid that he could afford to keep her in paper towels…
---
### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/6 "2015-05-26T18:19:02Z")
> [@OldGuy](#):
>
> If
>
> If the figure is 50 billion and it just supplied the US, it would be half a roll per person per day. That seems a touch high, but certainly believable.
I can’t see it. A family of 4 using 60 full rolls of paper towel a month? On average?
Paper towels typically come in 4 or 8 rolls to a package (and the 8 roll package is pretty big). This would mean an average family would be buying around 2 HUGE 8 roll packs every single week. Every single cart in the grocery store would have two huge packages of 8 rolls in it EVERY SINGLE TIME you went shopping.
Since I use much, much less, then in order to maintain the average, some families of 4 would have to be using 120 rolls a month. 30 a week. Going through 4 full rolls of paper towel each and every day. They would have to be using them instead of bath towels.
I’m thinking far too much about this topic, I fear.
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/7 "2015-05-26T19:47:56Z")
It’ll only take one tube to ruin the whole thread!
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/8 "2015-05-26T20:49:13Z")
> [@Laggard](#):
>
> Thanks. Perhaps they meant individual sheets?
**OldGuy** ’s numbers work the same either way. If it’s 50 trillion sheets, thats 20 sheets per erson per day.
If it’s 50 billion sheets, its one sheet every other day per person, which actually sounds like it could be correct as an average - it sounds low, but some people don’t use the stuff at all, and probably most people dont use it every day.
---
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/9 "2015-05-26T21:31:04Z")
This seems like a more rational estimate. This equates to
13,000,000,000 / 321,000,000 = 40.49 lbs used per year or 1.77 oz of paper towels used per person per day.
[http://www.thepaperlessproject.com/how-to-reduce-your-paper-towel-use/](http://www.thepaperlessproject.com/how-to-reduce-your-paper-towel-use/)
> [@](#):
>
> • In the U.S. we currently use more than 13 billion pounds of paper towels each year and that number is growing steadily. This equals more than 3,000 tons of paper towel waste in the U.S. alone.
---
### Author:  [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/10 "2015-05-26T21:49:13Z")
I love paper towels. You’ll have to tear them out of my cold damp hands before I give them up.
For statistical reasons, I’ll provide the following: I use about two and a half rolls of Scott white towels a month. I believe I’m a typical user. You can calculate away.
I use cloth towels too, but the paper ones are just so handy–then poof! gone.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-its-made-paper-towel-episode/720882/11 "2015-05-26T22:12:55Z")
Don’t forget to include all the ones used in industrial settings. And hospitals. And restaurants.
Do paper hand towels as used in public bathrooms count? All the offices, libraries, schools, airports, government buildings, etc., all across the country.
“Paper towels” is a lot more than the jumbo roll of Bounty a Mommy uses to wipe the spilled Kool-aid off the kitchen table.