Designing a Better Tissue
The design challenge for LastTissue was not primarily the cloth — soft, washable cotton has been used as handkerchief material for centuries. The challenge was the system: how do you carry reusable tissues in daily life without the clean ones becoming contaminated by the used ones?
The Two-Chamber Case
The silicone case is LastTissue's core innovation. It has two distinct chambers:
- Clean side: Where fresh, washed tissues are stored, accessible from one opening.
- Used side: Where used tissues go after use, sealed from the clean side.
This separation means you are never reaching into a case that contains used tissues alongside clean ones — the hygiene objection most commonly raised against cloth handkerchiefs. The case fits in a pocket or bag at roughly the footprint of a credit card holder.
Silicone was chosen for the case over fabric or plastic for specific reasons: it is non-porous (does not absorb bacteria), flexible (comfortable in a pocket), lightweight, long-lasting, and easy to clean. The case can be wiped with a damp cloth, washed with soapy water, or put in the dishwasher.
The Fabric: Organic Cotton Jersey
The tissue cloths are cut from OEKO-TEX 100 certified organic cotton jersey. The jersey knit was selected for three properties:
- Softness: Jersey knit is inherently softer against skin than woven fabrics, particularly around the nose where repeated wiping can cause irritation.
- Stretch: A small amount of stretch allows the cloth to conform to facial contours rather than dragging across skin.
- Wash durability: Jersey knit maintains its structure through repeated high-temperature washing without shrinking significantly or developing holes.
OEKO-TEX 100 certification means the fabric has been tested against a list of over 100 harmful substances — pesticide residues, heavy metals, formaldehyde, and others — and found to be below the thresholds for safe skin contact. This is the certification level required for products used by babies.
Wash Cycle Design
A typical cold or flu week might see a person go through 30–50 tissues in a few days. LastTissue includes enough cloths (6 per case) to cover a day or two of heavy use between washes, and the used-side holds what has been used until laundry day. The recommended wash is 40°C in a standard machine wash — hot enough to sanitise effectively, low enough to preserve the cotton fibres over hundreds of cycles.
The product is designed for one wash per week as standard — the same cadence as towels or bed linen. At that frequency, the 520-cycle lifetime extends to approximately ten years.
The Lifetime Impact
A single LastTissue set replaces approximately 520 boxes of disposable tissues over its lifetime — based on the cotton cloths lasting 520 machine wash cycles and a household using roughly one box of tissues per cycle. That represents significant avoided waste: 520 cardboard boxes, 520 plastic film windows, and tens of thousands of individual tissue sheets.
For a broader comparison of reusable tissue options, see the complete guide to reusable tissues.