I was looking for an environmental friendly way to protect my wooden dining table, or to avoid washing the cotton table cloth all the time.My wife wouldn’t approve off any plastic table cloth that look a lot worse than her current beautiful one. I tried the temporary plastic table cloth for parties, and try to let it stay on the table as long as I can. That won’t be a solution and they are too thin to be convenient. They are easily punctured.I was looking for a clear plastic sheet to cover the current table cloth so she wouldn’t notice much. The ones on the market are mostly PVC. When I replaced the kid’s shower lining last time, I though I was lucky to discover the cheapest plastic liner on the world in Target in a very hard to find corner. I didn’t realize that the awful smell that we tolerated for days were toxic. Now we have PEVA instead. So obviously I won’t get a PVC anything for my dining table.I didn’t thought of just using a large piece of glass. But this will only be applicable for putting on wood directly. It will be too much trouble to change the table cloth if the glass is on top. For glass you need other table mats for cushion.Now this polyester sheet is perfect. It is actually 40 inch by 12 feet. It wouldn’t make sense if it were 12 inch long. The only con is that I have to pay for 12 ft rather than 6 ft. And I have to cut it to size.Once unrolled, it has a tendency to stay flat. So it was easy to work with. It looked like glass, but you can’t find the thickness at the edges.I boiled a pot of water, stopped the heat, let the bubbles subside, and put it on a piece of spare sheet. It didn’t do anything to it. No marks. No signs of softening or melting.There is absolutely no smell of any type. This particular sheet is not FDA approved for food contact, but polyester the material can be approved in some applications. It’s competitive with cotton because it doesn’t need all the water to grow. We have mats for the forks and spoons so there’s zero concern for us. The alternative is acetate sheet that is FDA approved for food contact. But it is not tear resistance and not heat resistance.The thickness is about a piece of normal paper. It can easily be cut to size with a scissor, but not a paper cutter. So you need not worry about damage by forks and knives. They may make a dent but no holes. The dents may be healed by a hairdryer but I don’t worry about that.My other uses for the rest of the roll. Obviously, it makes good drawer liners. If there is a reasonable fit, it’s pretty hard to lift the liner up. I cut the sheets with scissors by hand and get reasonable “straight” lines to fit the bottom.Update 11/2020 – Amazingly, it still looks like that. It’s still in one piece. The edges and corners are intact. There are fine swirl marks due to daily use but you have to get close to see it. There are also one or two slight dish impressions and distortion when dishes are accidentally put on the table straight from the oven. But you can see a vague circle, and the sheet is still pretty flat around it. I must confest I haven’t washed the table cloth under since!