What's your choice for taking care of business? Is it ultra-quilted? Made from virgin paper? If it is, you may be wiping out ancient forests with each swipe of the hand.
The sales of soft, fluffy toilet paper are up, which means that millions of trees are being cut down. Some of these trees were once alive and well in old-growth forests, something that is disappearing rapidly from our world.
“No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper.” - Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, Natural Resource Defense Council.
Why do we as consumers avoid recycled content toilet paper? It seems to mostly stem from our obsession for the softest choice possible for our backsides, and recycled TP has the reputation for being rough and not-so pleasant to use.
America only buys about 2% of its TP made from 100% recycled materials, and with each person flushing over 23 rolls per year down the toilet, that adds up to a lot of trees. In some regions of the world, such as Europe, 20% of the TP sold is made with at least some recycled fibers, and in other places, you're lucky to have any sort of paper at all in the bathroom.
Why is virgin pulp still used for toilet paper and tissue? Manufacturers claim that new fiber from trees is longer and can be fluffed up for a softer product, whereas recycled fibers are shorter and may end up making a coarser product.
Anywhere from 25 to 50% of the pulp in toilet paper comes from tree farms, but the rest is sourced from second-growth forests, say environmental groups like Greenpeace. These forests absorb CO2 and serve as important habitats for wildlife, including endangered species.
Making paper from trees also uses much more water than recycling paper does, and produces more incidental waste. Chlorine bleach is also used to whiten the pulp, which adds to the environmental burden of our air and water.
If you need some guidance in which brands to buy to support recycled-content tissue and TP, Greenpeace has a downloadable guide, Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide, and if you'd like to take a stand against the biggest tissue maker in the world, Kimberly-Clark, head over and send a letter to the CEO and President of KC.
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About 15 years ago, there was a brief appearance of recycled tp in regular grocery stores. I grudgingly paid a higher price for it than regular, recognizing that even though it may have been a “cash grab”, I felt that it was important to encourage this direction. Then they just disappeared. If I could find any of these in a store, I would buy it. Walmart is the only store I recognize to be local (I’m in Canada)- I wish there was a similar guide for finding stores- not just the manufacturers- that sell it.
Thanks for the link to the guide. I’d like to see recycled TP readily available to everyone. It’s something that bothers me and I want to do the right thing – but it’s difficult with products like TP to consistently choose recycled when it’s not available in your area and in the stores where you regularly shop.
Unfortunately recycled content bathroom tissue contains BPAs. Why? Because when paper is recycled, thermal paper is also thrown in. Thermal paper is paper coated with plastic, as in credit card receipts.
This is only a problem when you consider recycled content bathroom tissue is being flushed down the toilet, eventually contaminating ground water with build up of small amounts of plastic.
I have one possible solution. I developed a new bathroom tisse made from (renewable and sustainable )bamboo non woven fibers. Please check it out. It is soft, smooth, breaks down quickly, bpa free, elemental chlorine free, and is packaged in a 100% recycled cardboard box. http://www.bumboosa.com We also plant a tree for every product sold and we are committed to alleviating the burden on trees, whether those trees are from ancient forests or managed tree farms.