If I am at the kitchen sink, I’ll try to dry my hands with a regular kitchen towel. If I dry them with paper towel, I will put it on the counter and reuse it. I don’t have any formal system for doing it, I don’t open them and line them up or anything, I’ll just put it down and reuse. If I use the paper towel to do something like wipe the counter, I’ll throw it out.
I work for an organization that caters food for meetings at least once every few months. It’s incredible, the amount of waste. Large aluminum trays that hot food comes in, garbage. They’re all covered with tomato sauce and nobody is cleaning them and recycling. The utensils are all thrown out – all plastic. The serving utensils, thrown out, plastic. The cups, thrown out, all plastic. The butter in separate servings, like they have in restaurants, thrown out plastic, once the butter is used. Last few times I was in the hospital, all the food served to patients, plastic and styrofoam plates and utensils, all thrown out. I guess the labor to collect and wash the utensils is too much. I would collect my unused stuff and I took it all home, plus when I travel, I take home the unused plastic or styrofoam coffee cups from my hotel room. Otherwise, I know the maids just throw them out.
@dappled_leaves: You’re probably in the minority (people who use cloth napkins at home). I don’t think I know of anybody that does that for every day. That’s great!