Now that my daughter is potty trained it is amazing to me how much toilet tissue my family of 4 goes through. It seemed like we were making a monthly trip to Costco just for the super-size Charmin pack. At first I just thought about the affect these trips were having on our pocket book. Then I started hearing/reading/learning about the affect our toilet tissue usage was also having on the environment. The combination of the 2 made me realize that my family needed to make a change.
According to a recent New York Times article: Turning a tree to paper requires more water than turning paper back into fiber, and many brands that use tree pulp use polluting chlorine-based bleach for greater whiteness. In addition, tissue made from recycled paper produces less waste tonnage — almost equaling its weight — that would otherwise go to a landfill.
It turns out that American's love for toilet tissue fluffiness comes at a steep price: millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. (Read more about the Charmin Effect)
My husband has been very accepting of the “green” lifestyle changes that we have been making and has really embraced them but when it came to giving up his Charmin he just couldn’t do it.
I understood where he was coming from. I had not heard very good things about recycled toilet tissue (or should I say, toilet tissue made from recycled paper. We don’t want to give people the wrong idea) and I am not sure exactly where I stand on the whole using washable cloths (aside from the sanitary perspective I am not sure about the water usage issue, obviously I need to educate myself more)
I decided to try recycled toilet tissue (just in one bathroom) to determine for myself if I liked it or not.
I will be honest, I was a bit shell shocked when I saw the prices so I went with the less expensive brand.
Natural Value Toilet Tissue
I was actually pleasantly surprised. It was not as rough or has thin as I had thought it was going to be. I also have not heard one complaint from either my children or from visitors who have used it. All good signs.
"We think that a healthy lifestyle should be affordable for everyone."
Let’s hope they work on this aspect a bit quicker (maybe someone at Costco and/or Target will read this and put this brand of recycled toilet tissue on their shelf. For Cheap) because as it stands right now, no matter how much I want to, I just can’t afford to fully replace my family’s Charmin supply with Natural Value.
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6 comments:
We use Whole Foods or 7th Gen toilet paper. It's not super soft but it works lol.
That’s what counts! ;-)
Another thing I like is how the recycled TP doesn’t use adhesive so all the paper comes cleanly off the roll which makes it easier to reuse the roll for craft projects.
I had no idea you could do so many blog posts about TP, bathroom, and sprayers ;-)
Thanks for stopping by and leaving such an interesting comment. I am having a difficult time convincing my husband to use recycled tp, not sure if he is ready to give it up all together though. Who knows where we will be next year though…..
You know some people complain they don't like the feel of recycled toilet paper but trust me, water feels great. And with a bidet sprayer you will need so little toilet paper that you can use the good stuff and not feel guilty! Cheers!
Hey Lena -
We have been using Small Steps by Marcal - at our store it costs the same as the store brand tp, which is the least expensive of the lot. I have to say it is a little "rough", but given we're used to the cheap stuff anyhow, we're willing to deal with it. Thanks for getting the word out there about "green" tp!
Your welcome greengirl. I figure knowledge is power. As I learn more I feel like I should share more ;-)
I haven’t heard of that brand. I will have to see if they sell it in my next of the woods…..
I will pass that message on to my husband Jeff!
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