The Toilet Paper

For my first mini-investigation, I've decided to feel out a product that usually feels us out. I use it every day, multiple times a day for multiple purposes. Yes, you've got it. It's that delicate, white, oh-so-soft material that we know better as "toilet paper".

First off, a little history lesson. It turns out that humans have been wiping and wasting for centuries. According to The Toilet Paper Encyclopedia, the earliest known records of toilet paper production was from 1391 A.D., when the Chinese Bureau of Imperial Supplies began manufacturing 720,000 sheets of toilet paper a year for its Emperors, each sheet measuring two feet by three feet. Important man, important wipes.

Following in their royal footsteps, we North Americans consume toilet paper rolls almost as fast as we consume cinnamon rolls. But not just any old toilet paper will do. We need the super-soft, cashmere, 4-ply, pearly white toilet paper with the dab of aloe-vera in the middle, signed by Britney Spears toilet paper. And why shouldn't we have it? Don't we have a right to get clean and be comfortable while we do so?

Well, what most people don't know is that none of the top-selling toilet paper brands have any recycled material in their toilet paper because they all compete for "softness"-- a quality that comes only from virgin trees (most of these trees coming from Canadian forests). Tissue made from 100 percent recycled fibers is under 2% of the domestic use market among conventional and premium brands.

Here's some interesting numbers found on Green Living Tips:

-One of the most commonly used type of tree can produce around 1,000 rolls of toilet paper. Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per person per year.

-23.6 rolls x 303,824,640 (USA population at July 2008)= 7,170,261,504 rolls of toilet paper a year.
-98% of that figure (the market share of toilet paper from virgin fiber)= 7,026,856,273 rolls a year.

-Now divide that by 1,000 (what each tree can produce in rolls)= 7,026,856 trees per year.

7 million trees a year have literally all gone down the drain. That is deplorable! Especially considering that many if not most of the trees these American toilet paper companies use is from Canadian-grown trees!

Concerning my health, I haven't found any information that says toilet paper with non-recycled materials in it is bad for you, although I'm tempted to trust in recycled materials because of the lack of chemicals. Nonetheless, the health-aspect is besides the point here. We need trees. To live. The more the better. What we definitely don't need is cottony-soft tissues.

Therefore, let's do the right thing-- help out those struggling recycling toilet paper companies and go buy some environmentally friendly tissue (albeit, slightly coarser tissue).

If you can't find it in your local store, there are many websites out there who take orders for it (eg. Treecycle.com). Good luck!

The Proposal

Things are not going so well for our little race. If you don't realize that by now, you will soon. We are living in a critical moment in history where we have two doors to walk through. One leads to a torturous and short-lived existence on a violent and barren planet, and the other leads to a life of peace-- Peace between humanity and nature, between our inner and outer lives, between what we need and what we are merely greedy for.

The first step is to realize that you are an integral part of the problem, but also a valuable asset to the solution. And that solution is a simple one: it is only to train yourself to be more conscious about the planet you live on; to think before you take, to ask questions about where your commodities and entertainment come from, and to change your life accordingly when you know you are doing something wrong. Somewhere between being a toddler and becoming an adult we forgot how to do this. We must bring back that child-like innocence, that yearning to know why, and when we couple that simple wonder with the self-discipline that we as adults know so well, then the solution can be wrought.

Can we do it? Can I?

This is the Green Test.

Each week, I will choose one thing common to my everyday life and investigate it. I will ask simple questions about it: How was this made? Where did it come from? Why do I use it? Is it good for me? It may not seem like much at first, but my hope is that added up, the little acts of change that may come from this test will accumulate into a healthier, greener life. A life that I can be proud of, and one that I can share with the rest of the world.