Flushing Trees Down the Toilet?!

How much sense does it make to flush trees down the toilet, or blow your nose on a tree? It makes pretty much no sense as I see it, but most toilet paper, facial tissue, paper towels, napkins, etc are made from “virgin” paper - that is paper that was made directly from trees made into pulp, as opposed to recycled paper, which is getting more than one use out of the trees that were cut down to produce it. One of my major pet peeves is using disposable products that were not already put to use at least once before. I’m not advocating for us all to stop blowing our noses or using toilet paper - lets get that straight. However, I do think that we should be a lot smarter and more concious of what paper it is that we’re using.

First off, why is it so important that we don’t cut down lots of trees? Aren’t they a “renewable resource”?Yes, trees are classified as a renewable resource, because trees grow back in a number of years (when logging companies re-plant them),as opposed to the millions of years it takes to produce coal, oil and natural gas. However, it does take some time for trees to grow back (the length of time varies with the species of tree and the climate), and in the mean time ecosystems are severely damaged by the disturbance by the act of cutting down the trees, erosion, which is worsened because the roots of the trees are no longer there to hold the soil in place, and the loss of habitat for many animals. In addition, trees provide oxygen and contribute significantly to the carbon balance - keeping the amoung of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in check - by using up carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Therefore, cutting down large number of trees also contributes to global warming! So obviously it is important to reduce the number of trees that get cut down.
I doubt that we’ll actually eliminate the need for paper any time soon, but we can do a significant amount to reduce the impact that our paper usage has on the planet.
But How?

1)Reduce Paper Usage - Print double-sided whenever possible, send things (especially rough drafts) to others electronically when possible, write on the backs of pages in notebooks and lined paper whenever possible, etc.

2)Re-use paper - GOOS (good on one side) paper is a goldmine! How many times have you had to print something multiple times before actually reaching your final copy? How many things do you print but only need for a short period of time, and then no longer need it? If you save paper that has only been used on one side, you can use it again later to print off that rough draft or that page of directions to so-and-so’s house. I got through almost my entire first year of university on one pack of (30% recycled) printer paper! It was quite easy: Every time I went to recylce a stack of printed pages I would quickly sort through them, pulling out the pages that were blank on one side and were still in good shape (not folded or dog-earred), and kept them in a special pile, and recycled the rest. Then when I had to print a rough draft or something that didn’t need to be professional-looking, I would use that paper instead of new paper. In fact, I kept GOOS paper in my printer as the default, and only changed to good paper when I really needed it. When I was running low on GOOS paper I would raid nearby paper recycling boxes, which are always full of GOOS paper. Extra perk of this tactic - save money too!

3)Recycle paper - always recycle paper! (unless the paper is too soiled to be recycled that is)

4)Buy recycled paper products, especially for “disposable” products like tissue, toilet paper (I promise, it’s just as nice as the non-recycled stuff), paper towels, paper plates, etc. Also, get the highest percentage recycled material printer, notebooks and lined paper you can find, it’s ususally impossible to tell any difference in quality. Look for high post-consumer content (stuff that’s been recycled by consumers like you), which encourages the recycling industry to expand becausethere is a market for their products. Pre-consumer material(ususally scraps from the production process) isn’t bad, in fact it’s great that producers are recycling as well, but again, post-consumer content is what drives the recycling industry. Without a market for recycled products, recycling becomes unprofitable (and we know how much society tends to do things if they’re not profittable), so fewer facilities will be opened, and less recycling will take place.

4)Encourage others to do the same! Tell your friends about all these tips - think of it as payiing it forward, if you can get three friends to change their habits, and they can get three friends to change their habits….imagine the impact we could have!

5)Demand eco-friendly options and practices from your school, church, workplace, etc. Do they recycle paper? Are the recycling bins accesible? Is everyone encouraged to make use of them? Are people encouraged to save GOOS paper (a clearly labelled bin beside the recycling bin is a simple way to do this)?Do they use recycled paper to print notices, newsletters, orders of service, flyers, etc? Can they switch to recycles toilet paper, paper towel and facial tissue?

6)Demand eco-friendly options from stores and companies - if you can’t find recycled lined paper for instance (ususally quite difficult to find actually), talk to the manager of the store or drop off a comment card or letter letting them know that you would certainly buy paper (or more paper) from them if they provided recycled paper. Also, contact companies that make the product that you’re looking for, and let them know that you want that product to come in a recycled version - or better yet, for only recycled versions to be offered. Get a group of people together and all write letters to the same company asking for the same product to be offered.

Cutting Down Ancient Forests
Another issue you should be aware of is the fact that some companies are cutting down old-growth forests - forests that have been in place for decades or even over a century - to make into disposable products. Greenpeace is doing a major campaign agasint the use of ancient forests in this way, specifically targetting Kimberly-Clark which is one of the largest paper products companies in North America. Their website http://x.cuc.ca/CSAC/wordpress/www.kleercut.net has much more information about the issue, and how to take action, including the following:

Don’t purchase Kimberly-Clark tissue products:
To send a strong message to Kimberly-Clark that ancient forest destruction doesn’t pay, only buy ancient forest friendly tissue products. If your local grocery or corner does not stock these products, talk to the store manager and ask that they do.

Ancient Forest Friendly Tissue Products - Canada

Toilet Paper: Fiesta, April Soft, Ambiance, Atlantic, Basic Choice, Basics for Less, Best Buy, Cascades, Fluffs, Equality, Earth Friendly Products, PC Green, Merit Selection, Econochoice, Safeway Recycled, Smartchoice, Seventh Generation, Super C, Twice as SoftFacial Tissue: Cascades, Seventh Generation
Paper Towels: Fiesta, Atlantic, Cascades, Cascades Ultra, Equality, Earth Friendly Products, PC Green, Econochoice, Merit Selection, Safeway Recycled, Seventh Generation, Smartchoice, Super C
Napkins: Champion, Décor, No Name, Econochoice, Merit Selection, Seventh Generation, Smartchoice, Super C

Ancient Forest Friendly Tissue Products - USA
Toilet Paper: CVS Bathroom Tissue 1000, Cascades, Marcal, Natural Value, Earth First, Seventh Generation, Trader Joe’s, 365 Everyday Value
Facial Tissue: Marcal Fluff Out, Seventh Generation, Trader Joe’s
Paper Towels: Marcal Bella, Natural Value, Seventh Generation, Trader Joe’s, 365 Everyday Value

Kimberly-Clark brands of tissue products to AVOID
Canada: Kleenex

United States: Kleenex, Scott, Viva, Cottonelle

Global: Kleenex, Cottonelle, Cottonelle Puppy, Andrex, Scottbrand, Hakle, Scottex

Send an Email to Kimberly-Clark
http://kleercut.net/en/sendtokc
For more information and more ways to take action on this campaign, check out http://kleercut.net/en/exit/1


Well I hope that will convince you to change some of your ways (or encourage someone you know to change their ways)
~Chris