I can't chime in with a purely Canadian alternative, but the Tork products are pretty good:
https://www.torkglobal.com/ca/en/about/press-and-news/trusted-canadian-partners
If you follow Tork all the way up, they're Swedish.
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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Sometimes big box thrift stores sell big bags (like medium garbage bags) of towels/scraps real cheap. If you have one to drop in at, they are usually in the section with the sheets and other textiles on the shelf in the middle of the racks.
By shelf in the middle of the racks, I mean like in this photo where the baskets on the right side are. I'm not sure what its called:
At least for some uses I bought a big 5lb bag of white cotton rags (essentially chopped up t shirts) from Lee Valley.
They’re labelled a product of Canada.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/supplies/project-materials/49422-absorbent-cotton-wipes
~Disclaimer: I am not liable for any and all incidental purchases of strange incredibly niche gadgets you find on the Lee Valley website. I take no responsibility for you buying a hand crank Apple peeler or a miniature steam engine kit.~
That disclaimer is absolutely necessary.
Princess Auto also has similar bags of rags.
And they have a few more locations around the country than Lee Valley, so may be more convenient.
Now that I'm looking around more, a box of rags might be a doable option. Not the Leevalley ones, but others I've seen appear to be much cheaper than the boxes of rags I've purchased in the past.
If you can find cheaper go for it
These are literally cut up tshirts
These are literally cut up tshirts
I try to use old shirts as rags (ones that are too damaged to donate), but sometimes buying a 20lb box of already cut up old shirts is the way to go. LOL
Oh. I'm keen to learn this too.
You can throw away rags. It doesn't feel great, but they're not that expensive depending on how you get them and honestly a shockingly enormous quantity of old clothing ends up in oceans or landfill no matter what, so if some of that clothing does an intermediate step getting recycled into rags before getting thrown out it's probably not such a big deal.
That said, Scott's towels are pretty awesome, I love them and would find it a bit hard to live without them too. I'm minimizing my use of them now and still have a pretty good stockpile but I'm curious if there are any good alternatives too.
I already use rags (and recycle old fabric into rags I can use), but usually reuse them if they aren't soaked in anything dangerous. The economics of shop towels vs rags is just too great for me to throw rags away.
I'm on my last roll of Scotts, but I was disappointed to see that they are American. Surely we have competing alternatives!