Flushing the Earth's Lungs Down the Toilet
Industry cuts down the boreal for bathroom tissue
During a climate crisis, industry continues to clear-cut the carbon-sequestering boreal forest in Canada to make toilet paper. We are literally wiping our butts with old growth and flushing the forest down the toilet. I don’t know if Johnathan Swift himself could have dreamt up satire more absurd.
Chopping down the boreal threatens the Indigenous Peoples who have lived there for millennia. Today, “more than 600 Indigenous communities rely on the forest for food, medicine, cultural tradition and economic prosperity.” Logging also devastates habitat for animals such as the endangered caribou and migratory birds that rely on the boreal, the “bird nursery of North America.”
And of course, clear-cutting the boreal heats up the planet, which affects everyone and everything.
Forest services
Forests absorb about 25 percent of human-generated carbon dioxide. The boreal forests, which stretch across Canada, Alaska and Russia, consist of deciduous trees and conifers, and the Canadian boreal holds more carbon in its vegetation and soils than any other forest in the world. Chopping down these forests not only eliminates their ability to sequester carbon, it also releases all of that stored carbon into the atmosphere.
Yearly, we lose about 1 million acres of boreal forest in Canada to clear-cutting, releasing emissions equivalent to 5.5 million cars. The US represents Canada’s biggest market for pulp and paper exports. According to the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) report on tissue products, The Issue with Tissue 2.0:
The US accounted for 56 percent of Canada’s pulp and paper exports in 2018.
From eight provinces in the boreal region, the US imported 70.6 percent of pulp and paper exports in 2018.
About a third of the pulp that US tissue manufacturers use in their products comes from Canada’s boreal. For some products, this virgin pulp content is as high as 75 percent.
America’s bathrooms can function without virgin pulp
Recycled bathroom tissue does the job just as well as bathroom tissue made with pulp from trees in the boreal forest. The NRDC report found that tissue made of recycled paper reduces emissions by about a third compared to virgin pulp. Plus, products made of post-consumer recycled paper—the stuff we consumers put in the recycling bin—create a market for that paper.
Recyclables do not become new products if a market for the recyclable material does not exist. Tissue manufacturers can close the loop of our recycling efforts by buying this material. (Recycled paper contains scraps rendered by manufacturing processes. Before being recycled, these scraps had never reached the consumer market.)
Like recycled paper, alternative fibers also generate fewer emissions. Although not widely available yet, wheat straw generates lower emissions because it is merely a byproduct of harvesting wheat—it exists regardless of what we do with it. More widely available bamboo tissue also generates fewer emissions—as a rule. As the NRDC points out in its overview of the 2021 Issue with Tissue scorecard, some bamboo grows on land that has been deforested in order to make way for this fast-growing crop, which increases emissions.
How did using the loo get so complicated?!
Solutions
Big business must stop chopping down the earth’s lungs for profit. But they won’t do it without pressure and policy. We individuals can keep up the pressure while also choosing more sustainable products.
Pressure big business
You can sign this petition from the NRDC to urge P&G—the worst offender—to stop destroying the forests, to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and to protect the habitat of caribou and other species that depend upon the Canadian boreal.
Next, sign this petition telling Costco to use at least 50 percent recycled material in its Kirkland Signature tissue products and to require the other brands it carries to do the same. Costco sells more bathroom tissue than anything else. Imagine the difference the company could make to the forests—and the planet—if every tissue product on Costco’s shelves contained 50 percent recycled paper.
You can also write to retailers, asking them to sell bathroom tissue made of recycled paper, wheat straw or bamboo.
The Remark app makes sending companies feedback easy. Search for a business and rate it across categories such as product packaging, organic options, produce bags and so on. The app then emails the business a diplomatically worded letter using your first name only and asks for changes.
Remark doesn’t include a category specifically for tissue products but it does provide a chance for you to customize the email before sending it. You could add a paragraph based on the following:
I’m very disappointed that your store carries [BATHROOM TISSUE BRAND], which contains virgin pulp from the Canadian boreal forest, according to the NRDC (National Resources Defence Council). We cannot foolishly flush our forests down the toilet during a climate crisis. Please stop carrying this brand and offer recycled bathroom tissue instead.
Push for policy
If you live in Canada, write your politicians. The NRDC report states that since it released its first Issue With Tissue report, “Ontario has continued rolling back protections for boreal caribou, and Quebec has again delayed recovery planning.” Find Ontario MPPs here and Quebec MNAs here.
Do some homework before hitting the bathroom tissue aisle
Below, I’ve listed the NRDC’s 2021 grades for the best and worst bathroom tissue brands. You can see the full scorecard here. That scorecard includes paper towels and facial tissues as well. When you buy tissue products, look for the brands that earned As or even Bs.
Bathroom tissue brands that earned As:
Who Gives A Crap 100% Recycled (A+)
Green Forest (A+)
365 Everyday Value, 100% recycled
Natural Value
Seventh Generation Unbleached Recycled Bath Tissue
Trader Joe's Bath Tissue
Marcal 100% Recycled 2-ply
Everspring by Target
Seventh Generation Extra Soft & Strong
GreenWise by Publix
Scott Essential Standard Roll
Bathroom tissue brands that earned Fs:
Scott 1000
Cottonelle Ultra
Scott ComfortPlus
Charmin Ultra
Kirkland by Costco
Amazon Basics Ultra
Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong
Walmart Great Value Ultra
Angel Soft
Quilted Northern Ultra Plush
Target Up & Up Soft & Strong
Presto
Solimo
Aria
Fiora
Also, please note that some companies earned As for one variety of their bathroom tissue and Fs for another (Target and Scott, for example). You want to be sure you grab the A and not the F accidentally!
For each product, the NRDC examined its recycled content, including post-consumer recycled content; Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for virgin pulp; and bleaching process. See the Appendix in the scorecard for the full methodology.
For the third year in a row, all of P&G’s tissue products received F grades. P&G continues to make Charmin, Bounty, and Puffs almost exclusively from virgin forest fiber. — NRDC
Consider alternatives to tissue products
Reducing our consumption of anything helps ensure we keep more of it—or its raw materials—around. These ideas won’t go over with everyone. But if you decide to try some of them, you’ll conserve not only paper but also your money.
Facial tissue substitutes
I first made handkerchiefs about 15 years ago and still use them. They don’t disintegrate upon nose-blowing the way throwaway tissues do and I can blow into them several times before I need a clean one. They also take up very little space in the washing machine. And they feel so much better on my nose than tissue. You may want to use handkerchiefs for this reason alone.
To make mine, I cut squares out of flannel and finish the edges quickly on my serger with a rolled hem. You can also simply cut up some t-shirt fabric and let the raw edge be—it won’t fray. These may not look as nice as flannel with a finished edge but you’re making handkerchiefs, not a prom dress. You can also simply buy handkerchiefs. They should last for years. I did a quick online search for handkerchiefs just now and even mainstream Target sells them.
Very occasionally, I do get some strange looks when I pull a handkerchief out in public and use it. I don’t know how these givers of weird looks think we managed to blow our noses before throwaway tissues hit the market. Eventually, we will normalize reusable handkerchiefs once again—and hopefully very soon!
Paper towels substitutes
In the bathroom
In the hopes that someone other than me will clean our bathroom, I store a jar of rags in the bathroom cupboard. And I often do see evidence of cleaning—a sparkling sink or tub and a wet rag hanging up to dry. I scrub surfaces with these rags, baking soda and either scrap vinegar or kombucha that has fermented to the point of very strong vinegar.
In addition to cleaning bathroom surfaces, sometimes you have to deal with substances in the bathroom that you’d rather not have to deal with—substances your child’s body violently brings forth at 2am, for example. If you use a rag to clean projectile vomit off the walls, on the upside, your trash won’t overflow with smelly paper towels. After you rinse out your rag, hang it somewhere to dry before putting it in the laundry (wet cloth in the laundry can develop mold) and wash your hands.
In the kitchen
I keep a few t-shirt rags in the kitchen to clean up small messes but for big spills, I clean up with a dish towel or unpaper towel, hang that up somewhere to dry (like outside over a chair or on the clothesline) and wash it later with the other towels.
I made the above unpaper towels using the same method as my handkerchiefs. The unpaper towel I stash in my bag at all times comes in so handy. In public restrooms—which I occasionally go to now that things have opened up!—I use my towel to dry my hands rather than throwaway paper towels or a deafeningly loud hand dryer.
These began as a flannel sheet that I had bought at the thrift shop. Once it had worn out, I made these. So I really stretched that $2.50 purchase. Or maybe I paid $1.50… I paid next to nothing for the sheet.
If you don’t sew, you can buy unpaper towels on Etsy. You’ll find lots of very cute options and by buying them there, you’ll support a small business.
“But what about fried food?”
When I mention ditching paper towels, people inevitably ask lots of questions about draining bacon and other fried foods without them. Here are some ideas:
Keep one towel dedicated for draining fried foods. When you’re done, wash it by hand, not in the washing machine.
Drain the fried food on a cooling rack sitting on a dish or cookie sheet. When the fat has hardened and cooled, remove it and set it aside. You could use it to season cast iron pans. Depending on the type of fat, you could also make birdseed fat cakes with it, something like these but try a muffin tin for the mold if you don’t have any plastic yogurt containers.
Drain the fried food on brown paper bags. While these also come from paper, most people have brown paper bags sitting around and you’ll reuse them at least. In some cities, you can put these in the green bin, yard waste bin or food scraps bin (different cities, different terminology, different rules).
If you find yourself in a restaurant with unwanted paper napkins at your table, take them home and use them as your emergency fried food draining stash. Again, you still use paper tissue but the staff would have tossed it in the trash and perfect is not an option.
Substitutes for bathroom tissue
Like I said earlier, not everyone will go for these and that’s okay.
Install a bidet
In my experience, people who have installed bidets, love their bidets. “But they use water!” you may be saying. According to the NRDC, bidets use less water than the tissue-making process. Not sure where to start your search for a bidet? This helpful Treehugger article reviews eight different bidet attachments.
Use reusable wee wipes
Almost everyone owns a pile of old t-shirts they don’t wear. Cut those up and use your new wee wipes to dab yourself after urinating. Then toss them in the laundry, just like you do dirty underwear. Use rationed bathroom tissue or a bidet for everything else. I apologize for the TMI, but I use wee wipes and I love them. I likely conserve a couple of rolls of bathroom tissue every month.
If this really grosses you out, then don’t do it. When I cut up my first wee wipes (for myself), my daughter, a teenager at the time, looked down at the jar of clean cloths in my hand, looked back up at me and said, “I’m moving out.”
On deploying reusable toilet towels during the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, Lauren F Streicher, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology, told The Guardian,
People urinated long before toilet paper became available. There are zero health concerns with this…people have urine on their underwear all the time.
And if you like trees… I’m currently reading The Nature of Oaks, by Douglas W. Tallamy. A couple of you recommended I read him and I am so glad you did. Thank you! Nature’s Best Hope has changed my life. I’m creating a challenge based on the book for my blog (and for my yard). I will post the challenge on my blog soon.
Thank you to everyone who joined the Make Borscht Not War cook-a-long on March 8th. It raised $2,753 for humanitarian relief in Ukraine and clips of it aired on CBC’s The National! The next fundraiser—Solidarity Sauerkraut—takes place on March 30th. All proceeds go toward Ukrainian relief.
This week, ChouAmi generously donated a prize for the fundraiser! I'll draw the winner's name randomly from the list of registrants during the event. (The drama!)
If the winner lives in the US, they will receive a ChouAmi Fermentation Bundle.
If the winner lives outside the US, they will receive a $100 USD gift certificate to spend at ChouAmi’s online shop.
The fermentation bundle includes:
One ChouAmi Fermentation Kit. The top is made from high-quality stainless steel, and fits onto a beautiful French-made Le Parfait glass jar. Ideal for at-home fermentation.
One Maple Wood Sauerkraut Pounder. This is made in Vermont.
One "Perfect Pickles" Spice Blend (Organic). This custom blend includes organic green tea, which keeps your homemade pickles crunchy!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for highlighting this gross misuse of our forests! I was mortified to learn how I have contributed to deforestation by buying certain brands of toilet paper. Consumers have a right to know the true sourcing of the products we are buying.