Towel Talk: How To Keep Towels White & The Most Sustainable Towel Brand

I don’t even want to admit this publicly, but we’ve had the same set of towels since we got married nearly 10 years ago. Between the lack of absorbency, the lingering odor that doesn’t disappear after being washed, and the fact that our “white” towels are now a brownish yellow hue…I can admit we’ve held onto them about 8 years too long.

So when Micro Cotton asked if I wanted to try out their towels, it was an obvious yes!

Why Micro Cotton towels? Well, there’s a lot of reasons. Besides the fact that they’re incredibly soft and come in a bunch of sizes (Umm…have you tried a body towel? I swear it’s like the size of a throw blanket!), they’re also the most sustainable towel brand on the planet. No really, no other towel brand has as high of a level of sustainable practices. Need proof?

More than 90% of the energy used to produce Micro Cotton’s towels is clean, green, and renewable. They’re on the road to becoming carbon neutral. They’re OEKOTEX® MADE IN GREEN certified and Micro Cotton even created their own waste management system to recycle water which allows them to use less than 1 liter of fresh water for making 89 bath towels where the conventional manufacturers are only able to make 1 towel with the same amount of water!

Is that proof enough?

I got 2 complete sets from Dillards, (you can also find them at Macy’s) and my main concern now is, how will I keep these towels white?

I did some Google research and I was actually really surprised by what causes white towels to discolor – too much detergent (guilty), washing whites with colors, and using too much bleach (guilty).

Apparently using too much detergent will create excessive detergent build up that doesn’t rinse properly, and with time that’ll decrease absorbency and cause discoloring. So just dump in some bleach to fix the problem right? Nope, apparently that can have the opposite effect! Using too much chlorine bleach can not only damage the fibers and shorten the lifespan of the towels, but natural fibers like cotton have a yellow core and over bleaching can expose that core making the towel appear yellow.

This is what I learned to do instead – Dry your towels in the sun, if possible, and wash them with vinegar! Add 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar during the rinse cycle or put the vinegar in the fabric softer slot when you start your laundry. In the spirit of taking care of our planet, vinegar is a much safer alternative to bleach.

My recommendation – Get a washcloth and bath towel for guests and fold them neatly on the bed for when they arrive. For yourself, get a hand towel to replace your tired towels in the bathroom. And if you really wanna feel like you’re living in luxury, get the oversized bath sheet…feels like you’re floating in a cloud!