Talk about a simple way to be greener! I was happily surprised when I went to use the restroom at my dentist’s office (shout out to Dr. Hubbard and his awesome staff!)  and saw that in lieu of paper towels, there was a basket of washcloths on the counter and another basket on the floor where the used ones were tossed.

Aside from maybe the restrooms at super fancy restaurants where someone’s standing at the counter waiting for a tip, the only other place I’ve seen anything like this was at the tanning salon I did a stint at during college where we cleaned the beds with white hand towels instead of paper towel.
I’m not sure of the hard numbers of this, but even though towels would have to be washed daily, using (likely) hot water and more energy, I have to think using the cloth towels saves energy and money in the long run, not to mention trees. And it wouldn’t be all that time consuming either.
So if you own a business (or know someone who does), using the washcloths is something I really hope you’ll consider. Maybe it’s even something worth mentioning to a boss if you work at a place small enough to handle this.