TP or not TP? Aye, there's the rub ..

by kieran mulvaney | March 06, 2009

To the list of environmental villains, add one more entry.

"The tenderness of the delicate American buttock is causing more environmental devastation than the country's love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions," says this report from the Guardian newspaper. The article quotes Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council as saying that 98 percent of the toilet roll sold in the United States is made from virgin wood - trees that are cut down and made into toilet tissue that is used for a matter of seconds, and then flushed away.

 

Although toilet tissue can be made from recycled material, the use of virgin fiber gives it that extra "plush feel," according to this report in the New York Times.  Perhaps tough economic climes increase a yearning for softly-wiped posteriors, because the Times notes that sales of Charmin Ultra alone increased by 40 percent in 2008.

That has attracted the attention of Greenpeace, which last month launched a guide to tissue and toilet paper, giving good grades to products that use 100 percent recycled content, of which at least 50 percent is post-consumer recycled content, and that are unbleached or bleached without toxic chlorine compounds.

The guide gives a thumbs-up to the likes of Green Forest, Natural Value, and Seventh Generation, while recommending that consumers avoid such well-known brands as Kleenex, Charmin, and Angel Soft.  

Some commentators, however, argue that changing the type of toilet tissue we use doesn't go far enough. We should, they urge, do without it altogether and clean ourselves with water, on hygienic as well as environmental grounds. The happy, smiling buttocks advertising this Japanese-manufactured "washlet"  would seem to agree. The washlet comes with a warm seat, bidet spray, and a dryer, although the $5,000 cost of a top-of-the-line model is likely to prove more intimidating to most environmentally-conscious consumers than a slightly rougher wipe. - Kieran Mulvaney  

(Photo by Brandon Blinkenberg)

Comments

[Lori Cuthbert]

Oh great. I knew there was something evil about all that cushiness. Will we have to adopt the Thai way of 'doing it'? It requires specific uses of specific - er - limbs, shall we say. Sigh.

[Sue]

When lucky enough to find any tissue at all, we female Brits must then embrace the joys of flap-folded single layer stuff and the uniquely challenging quest to find an optimim number of sheets to ensure successful task completion without: a)clogging up the plumbing, or b)losing one's digits through the pad. So that's what it is, then... Britain's public loo providers have caught the vision for environment-friendly toileting... Forgive me - I had only thought the choice of paper linked to cost.

[Nannon]

Hello All,

I must say that I agree. It seems a sad, ironic waste that we are cutting down so many trees and getting only partially clean backsides. Since meeting my husband (who is Indian) I have been washing with water and following up with two sheets of the recycled TP to dry. I have never felt cleaner. It's good to see that the planet derives benefit as well.

Regards,
Nannon