An article from the New York Times caught my attention last week. Many of us may never even think about the environmental consequences of toilet paper and if we do we may think it is not a very big deal in the grand scheme of things. If we are thinking along those lines, we are thinking wrong.
I am sure you are all familiar with the soft, cushiony toilet paper brands that are thrown at us via TV commercials and ads all the time…brands like Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra and Charmin Ultra. If you want to feel as though you are wiping your behind with a cloud then these are the brands for you.
Unfortunately this particular article shows that luxury and softness has a price.
millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. Although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber taken from standing trees that help give it that plush feel, and most large manufacturers rely on them.
Ugh! We are destroying forests just so we can have something super soft to wipe our backsides. That is the very definition of vain and wasteful. I would have to agree with Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist and waste expert with the Natural Resource Defense Council when he said “No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper.”
How can we justify such a thing when we can use/buy toilet paper made from recycled paper products? Is our bum worth that price?
The cost of “white” toilet paper is also high as tons of chlorine bleach and water must be used to bleach the paper pulp. This is highly unnecessary IMO.
So what can you do? Buy recycled, unbleached toilet paper. According to Greenpeace, Americans could save more than 400,000 trees if each family bought a roll of recycled toilet paper — just once. Inside their pocket tissue guide they recommend some of the following brands as being the most eco friendly choices:
Trader Joe’s brand
And of course there is always the option to use cloth. I admit that even though I use cloth diapers, cloth baby wipes, and even cloth menstrual pads (when I am not using my Diva Cup), I have not made the leap to cloth for the whole family and probably won’t. ;) I CAN buy recycled, unbleached toilet paper though.
Photo Credit: NiCk AnDeRsEn
I completely agree. Why waste trees when you can used perfectly good recycled toilet paper? Does it really feel that much different on your butt anyways?
I’m glad you brought this up, Tiffany. I think this report was eye opening to a lot of us – I just posted on the same topic, with a recommendation to buy CVS house brand, which is really cheap! Also, some natural markets will give a 10% case discount on products like this.
I only made the switch after this publicity came out – I’m sure it will motivate a lot of people to do the same! Nice to see, isn’t it?
I usually buy Trader Joe’s brand. It’s way cheaper than those fancy papers too. My mom always complains about it when she comes over. hehe But I guess we are all just used to it now.
I don’t think we could make the leap to family cloth either.
Personally I always hated those soft tissues. Nothing like *flurries* down there to take away a heated moment with your hubby. Personally I have always been a fan of Scott. I know it’s not recycled but a roll seems to last us 4x longer than the Seventh Generation rolls and it doesn’t leave any *flurries* behind.
I made the leap to using cloths instead of toilet paper, and it wasn’t so hard. (I only do it for number ones though. Number twos would be too gross.)
I wrote about it on my blog.
http://bestsariah.blogspot.com/2008/10/no-more-toilet-paper.html
We’ve been doing it for over 5 months now.
To answer the question posed above: “Does it really feel that much different on your butt anyways?”
YES, it does feel that much different on my butt. And my husband’s butt.
We are VERY eco-concious in our home – in pretty much everything we do/buy/use…
HOWEVER I have yet to find decent recycled T.P. or facial tissues. We have tried several different brands, which all feel like 40-grit sandpaper to us – but we will continue our search. In the meantime I am sticking with my soft-as-a-cloud stuff. I don’t feel wonderful about our choice, but the alternatives are not working for us.
In the very near future we will all dispose of our own waste and be limited water. Outhouses can be fun ! Those houses not able to do so will be taxed heavily. The era of crapping in the very resource all living things need to survive is coming to an end.
We went to cloth wipes for #1 as well. They are kept in a nice wicker basket on the counter and visitor don’t even know what they’re for. Once my daughter and i went to cloth wipes a pack of toilet paper lasted us 4 months! I originally switched because of how expensive TP had gotten, but this just gives me more incentive. And when my wipes get olf they can go into the compost pile.
You all have inspired me. I think I will try cloth for #1 and see how it goes. This will be an interesting experiment! :)
Hehe…I feel like a 5 year old with the talk of #1!!
I’m concerned about recent research showing that they found BPA in recycled tp – so I’ve been thinking about switching to cloth as well.
I’ve been using Seventh Generation TP and after trying some other brands found this to be pretty soft! I have IBS and Inflammatory Bowel Disease so TP softness is important! But so far, Seventh Gen has been great and has not felt like sandpaper to us. I buy the large 12 pack and when it is on sale, I stock up.
I also recently started buying recycled kleenex! Trader Joe’s brand is very affordable, even cheaper than the non-recycled stuff.
Haven’t thought about using cloth instead of TP, it is worth thinking about! It would be another use for old clothes and left-over fabric pieces from sewing.
Thanks for the great post. Always great to think of new ways to help save our environment!!
I had never even thought of doing cloth wipes for my hubby and I. We already do them for our 7 month old, but why not for us too! It would be so easy to just dump all the dirty wipes from us right in with his cloth diapers each night!! I am going to suggest this to my hubby.
I just heard about this, too, and immediately went out and bought recycled toilet paper. I never even thought about it. I use cloth diapers and napkins (and plan to use the Diva Cup after this baby is born), but I never even considered the affects of toilet paper. Thanks for sharing!
We switched to cloth for everything which is easy b/c we just throw them in the diaper pail. I have to say, after wiping my bum with tp it still feels dirty. I like cloth b/c I am actually washing my bum, which feels way better than dry paper.
THANK YOU for writing this! So important. I can’t do cloth toilet wipes either. Just not something I can handle. We switched from the ONLY brand of TP we would ever use to Seventh Generation about ten years ago. At first, we didn’t care much for it. Then we realized it didn’t leave bits of itself behind like the soft, plushy stuff does. Big plus! We also like that we can get it on 500 count 2-ply rolls, which means we go through fewer cores. We also order it by the case so we can get only the (recycled) paper-wrapped rolls, thereby reducing the amount of one-use plastic we add to the waste stream. And I love reading on the wrappers how many trees our collective usage has saved over the years.