Is Your Toilet Paper Too Soft?

[Stan Austin]

I certainly hope that ends this discussion

[Will Brown]

[quote="Heather Ramsey"]Will, the problem is not just the fact that we are using too many trees (which I would still say we are despite you being right that people would keep on being destructive in other ways), but also that we throw away so much and by not buying recycled products, you fail to support the market for products made with recycled materials, which then encourages people to throw things out rather than recycle them.[/quote]

Ah, a true green believer. Let me learn from you, as I had never thought of recycling toilet paper. I presume you use both sides, to get the most out of it. My question is, if you get any two-ply, do you use all four sides?

If you recycle your toilet paper, do you wash it before reusing it or setting it out for the waste department? You could just use it again, then, which would be even greener than recycling it. Do you iron it too?

My wife is not zealously green, but when our sons were in High School, there were occasions when the cheerleaders would come out and paper our house and trees. My wife went around and picked it up and rolled it for our use. I suggested ironing it, but she wouldn't.

And for the lady who apparently feels she needs a whole tree to wipe herself, I will play the gentleman and not make any comment about her physiology. Won't even think of any.

As for being true green, wouldn't using a washcloth use less paper, and if you rinsed it in gray water, you would be an environmental hero.

But in the real world, I think toilet paper is not recycled as paper, as most of us flush it. In fact, toilet tissue is specially engineered to dissolve in water, as contrasted with facial tissue, for example, which is why you should avoid flushing facial tissues, or books and magazines, down the toilet, unless you want to meet a plumber.

[Heather Ramsey]

Though it seems like you were at least partly kidding, I was in no way suggesting recycling toilet paper. I was suggesting that you need to BUY recycled products (ie toilet paper with post-consumer content) in order to keep the recycling industry going, which saves resources elsewhere. In order for recycling to work, there needs to be a market for products with recycled content. So, recycle everything else, and then BUY it again when it's made into toilet paper with recycled content.

[Heather Ramsey]

If anyone is curious about which brands are better (how much recycled content they have; what the bleaching process is), there's a nice little guide available here:

http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/u ... eguide.pdf