There is a battle for America's behinds.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Soft Toilet Paper's Hard on the Earth, But Will We Sit for the Alternative?

By David A. Fahrenthold

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, September 24, 2009

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. -- There is a battle for America's behinds.

It is a fight over toilet paper: the kind that is blanket-fluffy and getting fluffier so fast that manufacturers are running out of synonyms for "soft" (Quilted Northern Ultra Plush is the first big brand to go three-ply and three-adjective).

It's a menace, environmental groups say -- and a dark-comedy example of American excess.

The reason, they say, is that plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old. They want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods.

It has been slow going. Big toilet-paper makers say that they've taken steps to become more Earth-friendly but that their customers still want the soft stuff, so they're still selling it.

This summer, two of the best-known combatants in this fight signed a surprising truce, with a big tissue maker promising to do better. But the larger battle goes on -- the ultimate test of how green Americans will be when nobody's watching.

"At what price softness?" said Tim Spring, chief executive of Marcal Manufacturing, a New Jersey paper maker that is trying to persuade customers to try 100 percent recycled paper. "Should I contribute to clear-cutting and deforestation because the big [marketing] machine has told me that softness is important?"

He added: "You're not giving up the world here."

Toilet paper is far from being the biggest threat to the world's forests: together with facial tissue, it accounts for 5 percent of the U.S. forest-products industry, according to industry figures. Paper and cardboard packaging makes up 26 percent of the industry, although more than half is made from recycled products. Newspapers account for 3 percent.

But environmentalists say 5 percent is still too much.

Felling these trees removes a valuable scrubber of carbon dioxide, they say. If the trees come from "farms" in places such as Brazil, Indonesia or the southeastern United States, natural forests are being displaced. If they come from Canada's forested north -- a major source of imported wood pulp -- ecosystems valuable to bears, caribou and migratory birds are being damaged.

And, activists say, there's just the foolish idea of the thing: old trees cut down for the briefest and most undignified of ends.

see rest of the story

[GreatLakesGramma]

I'd be just fine with using pages from the Sears catalog, like back when my mother was a child, but they would clog the plumbing, and the septic tank couldn't handle them.

[Neil D]

Quote:

And, activists say, there's just the foolish idea of the thing: old trees cut down for the briefest and most undignified of ends.

Well,...we could be using the leaves from various trees and shrubs....but our neighbors may not like it....which may resort to planting poison oak...

....to which, this problem would be a real pain in the.....glutes

[Tom Wetmore]

Oh poo...

[Stan]

It has been estamated the British Columbia has 20% more trees than it did 100 years ago.

We harvest trees, and plant more tree than were cut down.

There is no shortage of trees, and they are renewable. (Better paper then plastic bags)

[GreatLakesGramma]

I read, some years ago, that paper companies always plant trees to replace those they cut down, and that if paper use were reduce significantly, they would most likely sell the land, and someone could then cut down the tress and develop it.

[aldona]

I remember having this discussion before...

I have been using toilet paper made from recycled office paper for about 15 years now, and gradually watched the price become more comparable to regular paper and the quality improve.

(for my fellow Aussies reading this - go to your local Woolworths/Safeway store and compare the price per roll of a top-quality 3-ply recycled product like EnviroSoft, with other premium 3-ply toilet papers.)

My backside feels just fine, and I feel good knowing that the beautiful trees that are cut down and transported on the big log trucks on our roads every day have been spared such an undignified purpose and have been freed up for more important uses.

aldona

[Woody]

Thank You Pam. Great Post.

My opinion:

American's deserve the very best for their behinds.

[Amelia]

*Gp

Quote:

Using wood to make paper is a fairly recent innovation. In the 1800s, fiber crops such as linen fibres were the primary material source, and paper was a relatively expensive commodity. The use of wood to make pulp for paper began with the development of mechanical pulping in Germany by F.G. Keller in the 1840s, and by the Canadian inventor Charles Fenerty in Nova Scotia.

Quote:

Wood pulp comes from softwood trees such as spruce, pine, fir, larch and hemlock, and hardwoods such as eucalyptus, aspen and birch.

Quote:

Trees raised specifically for pulp production account for 16 percent of world pulp production, old growth forests account for 9 percent, and second- and third- and more generation forests account for the rest. Reforestation is practiced in most areas, so trees are a renewable resource. The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certifies paper made from trees harvested according to guidelines meant to ensure good forestry practices

[olger]

As Cheryl Crow says

"Give one piece a chance.."

[Ted Oplinger]

There was a reason years ago people used the catalogs and corn cobs for that sort of thing...

...Ouch....

[Planey]

American's deserve the very best for their behinds.

Too true.

Cannot afford taking risks with an area so close to their brains...

Graeme

[Woody]

Condemning an entire nation? Doesn't sound like it is playing nice. Does it?

[Neil D]

Planey-

Please excuse Redwood. He's been using more toilet paper than most of us of late...Specifically, since last November..and doing alot of rubbing of his behind...it has affected his brain, and we have seen some characteristics resembling Terrette's syndrome....And, of course, there is that segment of American population that has been...less than healthy by those timely events..

[phkrause]

OK Neil, lets give Redwood a break. Because some day the shoe will be on the other foot and than you'll be asking for a break. Lets not burn bridges.

pk

[Planey]

Sorry, Red.

'Twas a joke (though not very PC or polite)

I am puzzled though - on another thread I was characterized as having been PC-lobotomized. And here I am not at all PC. Perhaps I am really schizophrenic?

Graeme

[LynnDel]

If I were dictator, I'd require that every household have a bidet. It would be the very best for everyone's behinds and would save a lot of trees.

LD

[Amelia]

Ok, I've never used a bidet...but doesn't that get you wet?

[olger]

Bidets make a lot of sense to me.