Natura Cloths – Not Just For Cleaning Anymore!

Last April (2007), I wrote about Natura Eco-Friendly Products on the EcoSherpa blog. For those of you unfamiliar (many of you, I would imagine), they are simply a line of earth-friendly cleaning (and related) products, available here in Canada.

We use a variety of Natura products in our home, but we particularly love the Natura ‘Wonder Cloths’ which, unlike most ‘regular’ kitchen cloths we’ve used, don’t start to stink after a short period of time (assuming frequent use and remaining moist). They do eventually get a little smelly, and also break down structurally (seem to be made of something similar to cheesecloth), but are supposed to be fully biodegradeable.

A while ago, I caught my wife in the act of throwing out one of our well-used cloths (she felt that it was starting to stink). Rather than see it go to waste, I decided to saved it from its landill fate and put it to the test in one of my worm bins. I wish I had made note of the exact date I threw it in the bin! It will be fun to see exactly how long it takes to fully decompose. I suspect I will be at least able to come up with a pretty good estimate based on my use of this particular bin. I know I added it shortly after completing my squash decomposition project (sorry for the delay bringing you that video, by the way), so that should help.

For kicks and giggles, I decided to check it out this morning and of course took some pictures while I was at it! As I suspected, the cloth was full of worms!

As you can see, the worms are literally living inside it. I’m not too surprised to see this, since in my experience worms tend to love having some sort of matrix (no, not the kind with ‘blue’ and ‘red’ pills!) around them. I’ve found them deeply buried in corrugated cardboard and corn cobs quite a few times, and I was expecting them to do the same with the cloth.

Just so you know what the cloth looked like before I tossed it in the bin, I’ve included a photo (below) of the one we are currrently using. It looks a wee bit different!

Anyway, I just thought I’d share that. This is likely one of the only places where people will appreciate my sense of adventure! (many would think it was simply ‘disgusting’, including the company that makes the cloths – haha!)

I’ll be sure keep you posted on the decomposition process!

Technorati Tags: natura, eco-friendly, biodegradeable, green products, eco products, decomposition, red worms, worm composting, vermicomposting, worm bin

Written by Bentley on January 8th, 2008 with 11 comments.
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