Just Look at Where Your Shop Towels Have Been

Most shop towels go back and forth from the laundry to a variety of industries, where they pick up oil, grease, solvents and toxic heavy metals like lead and cadmium.

After laundering, towels are randomly sent out to other customers - a foundry, a chemical plant, a metal manufacturer - picking up more contaminants at each workplace.

Keep in mind that shop towels retain heavy metal residues even after laundering. And the heavy metals and other contaminants that do come out during laundering go into the wash water, where they can be re-deposited onto "clean" towels.

It's a cycle that continues until the towels degrade and are sent to a landfill.

Shop towels actually start out white. They are only dyed red when they become stained. After many uses, they may be re-dyed blue - all to cover up what's not coming out in the wash.