subject: Recycled Toilet Paper: The Easiest Way To Be Environmentally Conscious [print this page] No matter how much of an effort youre making to be green, some of the easiest ways to be environmentally conscious are often overlooked. Next time you venture into the bathroom, examine your toilet paper. Theres a huge chance that the toilet paper youre using is made from treestrees from the last virgin forests of North America.
Is using regular toilet paper really as bad as driving a Hummer?
Consider this: If every household in the USA replaced only a single roll of virgin fiber toilet paper with one made from 100% recycled post consumer waste, we could save almost 424,000 trees.
Buying recycled toilet paper for your home or office is one of the easiest ways to avoid contributing to destructive environmental processes. Napkins, paper towels, tissues, and toilet paper are all one-time usage only products, so it makes sense to purchase recycled versions of these products and avoid contributing to more waste. If not, paper giants such as Kimberly-Clark are forced to source from virgin forests that are ecologically valuable.
Recycled toilet paper is a product that has high post-consumer content. Post consumer products have a high content of recycled materialpaper in this case that would have otherwise gone to a landfill or burned up in an incinerator. Other non-recycled toilet paper products also have been put through a harsh bleaching process with harmful chemicals like chlorine to give them a white and bright appearance. The chlorine and chemicals end up either in our water supply or in the air and can be harmful to fish, animals, and humans as well. Recycled toilet paper should be chlorine free (TCF) or processed chlorine-free (PCF).
Unfortunately, recycled toilet paper has a reputation for not holding up to regular brands when it comes to comfortand thats something that most Americans are unwilling to compromise on. Recycled toilet paper represents only 2% of the TP sold in the US market, but in Europe and Latin America it stands at 20%.
Recycled toilet paper might not be the softest toilet paper youve ever tried, but seriously consider whether or not its worth turning the remaining forests of North America into the most disposable of products.
