Is Your Ass Worth One Million Trees a Year?

The first time I brought home a package of recycled toilet paper, my husband was not a happy camper. Caressed since childhood by the fluffy comfort of Charmin and Quilted Northern, the rough texture of 80 percent post-consumer content seemed harsh by comparison.

"Do we really have to be one of those households?" he protested, echoing Larry David's sentiment in the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode in which Larry gets into all sorts of shenanigans when he refuses to frequent the bathroom at his own home, because environmentalist wife Cheryl insists on stocking toilet paper of the coarse recycled variety.

"Please?" I beseeched. Then, like Cheryl (based on real-life global warming activist and HuffPost blogger Laurie David), I launched into my spiel about razed virgin forests, how trees help stop global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and how -- well, you get the picture.

My hubby graciously obliged, as he has with most of the family environmental overhauls I've implemented over the past several years, and soon learned to make do (sorry!) with those sparse, rough rolls. (Although I know he secretly rejoices every time we visit his parents' house or the elegant powder room of our friends in the Hollywood Hills.)

Soon, everyone's toilet paper may lose some of its fluffiness: Greenpeace's five-year-long battle against tissue-product mogul Kimberly-Clark (K-C) came to a victorious end last week, with the Kleenex/Scott/Cottonelle manufacturer agreeing to source 40 percent of its North American tissue fiber from recycled or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified pulp by 2011.

But some don't think this measure is enough. "Since when is 40 percent a passing grade?" questioned Marcal CEO Tim Spring in a statement issued shortly after the Greenpeace/K-C truce announcement. "While I understand the negotiating process, Greenpeace needs to rethink these standards. There is no excuse to make paper from anything but 100 percent recycled fiber, especially when you consider that paper takes up a quarter of our landfill space today."

While it certainly behooves Marcal to use this as a favorable circumstance to promote itself as the (unbleached) white knight of paper products -- the company has been making its toilet paper and other goods out of recycled fiber since 1950, a time when people were still throwing trash out of car windows -- the opportunist do-gooder does have a point: Is your ass worth 1 million trees a year?

OK, so I'm referring more to our collective bottom here; the National Resources Defense Council estimates that if every US household swapped out just one four-pack of traditional bath tissue (made from virgin fiber) for the recycled version, it would save approximately 1 million trees a year. And eliminate 60,600 pounds of chlorine pollution. And preserve 356 million gallons of fresh water. A few more statistics that may convince you to make the switch:

• Half of the world's forests have already been cleared or burned, and almost 80 percent of what remains has been seriously degraded.

• One tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces after driving 26,000 miles.

• The paper industry is the fourth-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among US manufacturers.

I'm not going to lie to you: Recycled toilet paper doesn't even come close to the real stuff. But when I contrast the fleeting comfort of soft cottony tissue with the feeling I get envisioning my grandchildren being able to visit the same majestic forests that existed long before my own grandparents were even born, I realize that it's a small sacrifice I'm willing to make.

I won't judge if you're not ready to load up your lavatory with Seventh Generation. None of us is perfect, and even I have a few not-so-eco-friendly products I've deemed too important to my daily happiness to eliminate from my regular routine (Pantene, for one). But consider swapping at least one regular paper product (napkins, paper towels, facial tissue) for the recycled kind. Or go one better: Use cloth napkins for meals, keep a stack of dish towels next to your kitchen sink, and carry a good old-fashioned handkerchief.

Comments

[Angie Cordeiro - Huffpost Blogger]

It's all interconnected the problems, challenges and the solutions.

The pervasive mentality that believes either / or could use a "Reality Check"; we can have the "virgin" type toilet paper and one manner is by developing labor intensive hemp farms in our economy & ecology challenged society; there are other sustainable solutions out there yet this one is already on the table and it seems only the "old geezer generation" in big business & government that are holding up the implementation of such.

Until then, yes, a little less self-indulgence and a little more self-discipline strengthens integrity in any person, community and society.

The exciting part is when the big changes are implemented: "The Humanure Handbook: A guide to composting human manure. by Joseph Jenkins

www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.htmle.html

[Candy Pope]

How 'bout corncobs?

[FearlessFreep]

HuffPost's Pick

Legalize hemp! It can provide paper in place of trees.

[lbrty 2112]

So what we're saying here is it takes .002857 (or 1mil trees / 350mil people) trees to wipe my ass? That seems like an absurdly small amount for the comfort of 'fluffy' moon floss considering I burn about seven to eight cords of wood a year to heat my house.

[Jennifer Grayson - Huffpost Blogger]

No, actually, the statistic says that if every household in America swapped out only ONE four-pack of regular toilet tissue for a package of recycled toilet paper, it would save 1 million trees a year. Considering that the average American uses 100 rolls of toilet paper a year, we're talking about 25 million trees here (much of which comes from virgin, old-growth forests). And that's for toilet paper alone -- I'm not even figuring in trees cut down for paper towel, napkins, facial tissue, computer paper...

And you're right -- the bigger environmental impact for you might be firewood (I don't go through much firewood here in Southern California) -- but that doesn't mean you should just say the heck with it all. I really believe that every little change makes a difference.

[lbrty 2112]

Jennifer, for the record, I do agree that every little bit helps and old growth should be spared, but we need to consider that trees are a renewable resource. About one hundred years ago there were precious few trees here in the northeast. I'm happy to report they have recovered nicely.

[mzrecycle]

Your picture, if it's recent shows that you're too young for a few of the auhh... side effects of getting older. There are a couple of those side effects that just can't be handled well with thin, rough toilet paper. I'll continue to use my soft, two-ply paper.

I've kept and used a basket of rags for decades, as well as had dish towels and hand towels in the kitchen. I've used cloth napkins and handkerchiefs now for about 4 yrs.

[jsgaetano]

Can't someone come up with a better solution?

We can put a man on the moon, but we can't make a recycled toilet paper which doesn't feel like sandpaper? I refuse to believe that.

[unitron]

Pantene hasn't been any good since they quit making the original blue stuff in the blue bottles.

Is toilet paper made from any type of tree in particular? Pine trees anymore aren't so much "old growth" as they are a harvestable crop. Nobody complains about the harvesting of "old growth" corn or wheat fields.

Is toilet paper the best use of recycled paper?

[howeverfaraway]

I was watching Rob Riggle (sp?) on the Daily Show when he was in an Iranian home. Beside their toilet there was a water pipe attached to the wall (kind of like a sink sprayer) that I take they use like a bidet in order to cleanse themselves after 'toileting".No paper involved at all that I could tell. I would like to have one of those, but I don't even know what they are called. Can anyone enlighten me?

[dyspeptic]

I bought one on eBay, but I haven't hooked it up yet. Friends who have tried them tell me they are great. You connect them at the toilet water inlet. They are very much like kitchen hand sprayers, but sturdier and designed to be hung from a hook near the toilet.

I don't get what the problem is with recycled content TP, though, and I hate what it says about us as a nation: Americans, the most sensitive nether orifices in the world! Come along, people! We have to log the boreal forest, which simply can not be replaced at any price, because your bupkis is that tender? OFCOL!

Trader Joe's has a high recycled content TP. And, Marcal, my personal favorite, is available for delivery from a number of online retailers, including Office Despot.