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 »  Home  »  health  »  Toilet paper and the environment
Toilet paper and the environment
By Green Living Tips | Published  03/1/2009 | health , family , business
Trees and our toilet paper
Earth friendly toilet paper tips

Do we *really* need that super soft, fragranced white toilet paper with the floral print? Our butts really don't care :).

The mind boggles at how many trees are cut down each year just so we can wipe our bums.

While toilet paper from recycled materials is quite common here in Australia and in many other countries, I was rather shocked to learn that in the USA, tissue made from 100 percent recycled fibers is still under 2 percent of the domestic use market among conventional and premium brands.

I'd like to warmly encourage folks in the USA (and to anyone using the virgin fiber sourced paper) to please ignore the marketing that says you *need* the super-fluffy blinding white paper and to at least have a try of the recycled stuff.

It might not be quite as soft, but millions of people I'm sure would agree when I say that it's not exactly sandpaper either. There's certainly no pain involved, I assure you :).

Toilet paper made from recycled material does the job, does it comfortably, does it well and really, isn't this an area of our lives where we really don't need over-pampering - particularly when otherwise what we'd be wiping our butts with is made from live trees?

One of the most commonly used type of tree can produce around 1,000 rolls of toilet paper. Given that Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per person per year, let's do some rough number crunching:

23.6 x 303,824,640 (USA population at July 2008)

= 7,170,261,504 rolls of toilet paper a year

98% of that figure (the market share of toilet paper from virgin fiber)

=  7,026856,273 rolls a year

now divide that by 1,000 (what each tree can produce in rolls)

= 7,026,856 trees per year

Even if you should take out the "hybrid" brands that contain some percentage of recycled content, this would still amount to millions of trees.

Whether it's plantation timber or not, this represents millions of trees that could be cleaning up carbon dioxide, not sh..! Then there's all the other very important functions that trees perform in our ecosystem. At the very least these trees could be put to far better use in more semi-permanent applications such as furniture or building materials.

Recycled content toilet paper traps

Buying toilet paper made from recycled materials is great but even this can present some challenges.

Recycled paper needs to be deinked before it is pulped and processed. This deinking process may involve chlorine to bleach the paper. Chlorine based chemicals can react with paper fibers to create toxic compounds such as dioxin and organochlorines.

Dioxins cause cancer, learning disorders, decreased immune response, diabetes and all sorts of other nasty problems in the environment. By the way, the same chlorine issue is prevalent when using virgin-fiber based toilet tissue too.

When shopping for earth friendly toilet paper look for statements such as "unbleached", "processed chlorine-free" or "totally chlorine free"

Toilet paper from recycled materials costs around the same. If you're really in savings mode, you can also save on paper (and save yourself some cash) by opting for 1 ply paper. While a roll of 1 ply can be more expensive, there's more usable paper and studies have shown that people tend not to use more of it. 1 ply also breaks down faster, which is particularly a good thing in septic systems. Less paper, less pumping out, less cost.

Choosing recycled chlorine-free paper is something we can all do. If your local supermarket doesn't stock it, demand that they do!



Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips.com
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  • Comment #1 (Posted by Mak)

    Found myself at this website looking for info.on possible, personal health risks of using chemically-treated toilet paper...& the residue of dioxin, etc. over a lifetime.
    There is no info.that I could find. There seems to be one option & it's not recycled toilet paper (Yuck). Brown paper hand towels (typically used in dispensers in public restrooms,for example) may be inconvenient to purchase but seem the only alterantive out there. I'm assuming they would not contain nearly the level of chemicals it takes to nuke the color out of commercial T.P. rolls. I wonder why no one has yet marketed chemically untreated (brown) toilet paper?
    Or have they?
    mak
     
  • Comment #2 (Posted by Angie)

    There is another alternative to toilet paper and that would be using cloth. No trees have to be cut down, no dyes, they are washable and can be composted when worn out if they are organic. This is something some people consider a voodoo topic but the way I see it, even if you only use them for urination and keep some of the disposable around for defacation, that alone would save TONS as most of us pee many times more than defecating. AND, no disposable toilet paper, recycled or otherwise, can ever match the softness and absorbancy of cloth.
     
  • Comment #3 (Posted by Andrea)

    Mak's comment hit the mark. I called Seventh Generation, who's products are carried by Whole Foods. A rep told me that dioxin and other chemicals typically found in paper products such as sheets of paper are in recycled toilet paper. So who cares if their recycled toilet paper is unbleached? I can't seem to find unbleached (brown?) toilet paper from virgin pulp. If I were a guy, I would not care this much.
     
  • Comment #4 (Posted by missusg)

    I belong to a group that has several members on cloth. Keep them in a bucket of white vinegar until wash day.No issues reported yet.

    I use a "poor man's bidet", comprised of a spray bottle. Pre-cleaning the area is a lot cleaner and has reduced the need for any type of tp by at least 4x

    Various options may be gross to one and acceptable to another. But there is a better option for all of us. Next time, I'll buy recycled. I'm a coupon-er/stockpiler so it will be awhile!
     
  • Comment #5 (Posted by pelf)

    What about using water to wash ourselves? It is definitely doable, and saves millions of trees every year.
     
  • Comment #6 (Posted by Lacey)

    I was researching this issue the other day, and I found this site:

    http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp
    and here's the full list:
    http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/tissueguide/ratings.aspx?paper=facial+tissue


    None of the "top" brands were available near me, but I did raid the local CVS; the list is outdated, I think, because the packaging boasts 100% recycled paper (the list says 75%). Even got a bunch for my parents's household (they were still on the virgin forest stuff).
    CVS might only be in the US, though.

     
  • Comment #7 (Posted by Nicole)

    i use flannel cloth wipes {wee wipes} they are soo much softer, i put them in a large glass jar with teatree oil & wash with the towels once a week
     
  • Comment #8 (Posted by Kara Johnson)

    Read your article and think there's a wealth of information but I'm still on the hunt for comfortable recycled toilet paper. It's so much better for the environment but just so tough on the bum!
     
  • Comment #9 (Posted by Mia Mays)

    I was looking for an alternative to paper toilet tissue when I found this site. In labor and delivery we use plastic bottles of water for our delivered mothers to cleanse with. I think this is a beautiful idea for all of us, using washable cloth wipes to pat dry. Great info!
     
  • Comment #10 (Posted by Eli)

    For folks who advocate "wiping" with water instead: while I certainly appreciate the effort to spare trees, bear in mind that water conservation is a vital component of true green living. By swapping water for wiping, you may just be trading one ecologically unsound practice for another.
     
  • Comment #11 (Posted by George B)

    Using water is definitely a viable idea as it saves a lot of trees. Comapred to the amount of water that is flushed down the toilet with each flush (3 to 5 gallons), amount of water used to wash ourself is very very negligible. Plus with tissues, there is not only cutting down of trees that is involved; the water required to process them into papers, dangerous chemicals, power consumption, transportation aspects also need to be considered.
     
  • Comment #12 (Posted by nicholas)

    it doesnt have to do with the kind of toilet paper we use. we all can live much healthier, cleaner, more comfortable, environmentally friendly lives without any toilet paper. you can clean yourself with water as billions of people do and have for thousands of years. it is almost free( you just need a container and water). You just pour the water down your crack and wipe with the fingers on the other hand. this is simple, this is what so many people do, once you start its one of those things you cant imagine why anyone would do anything else.
     
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