America's Love Affair with Really Soft Toilet Paper Is Causing an Environmental Catastrophe

Seems doable.

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In many parts of the world where squat toilets are the norm, it is common for water to be used to both wash the anal region as well as wash the feces away. Some (not all) people follow up with soap for the hands or use it for the anal region in the first place. Bidets are also common around the world.
Sincerely,
Aouie

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I guess this means the 3 sea shells may become actual fact. Of course I may still be tempted to use paper citations for "Violations of the Verbal Profanity Code".

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Want to save half the destruction of trees that are used for toilet paper? It is easy. After you use toilet paper, fold it in half and use again. You will no doubt protest that it is now half the area and not useful. However it is also twice as strong which restores its usefulness. Try it and see for yourself!

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Not to be indelicate, but since I went to Nepal and now to Bangladesh to teach and practice medicine, I don't use toilet paper, either. Instead we have water sprayers of the kind Americans have on the kitchen sink to clean after using the toilet. The amount of water used is probably less than that required to manufacture the toilet paper, and no trees need be felled. It leaves you cleaner than wiping with the dry paper, in addition to being more environmentally friendly.

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we use the roll that's like 1,000 sheets and lasts forever. Those soft plush papers are gone in a day around here, so forget 'em. However, I know they still use up the forest we need. I'm going to get some hemp TP...

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The author claims that 98% of the toilet paper used in the US comes from virgin forests. Frankly, I think she pulled that figure out of her ass. I'm sure there are more environmentally friendly ways for us to clean our tooshies after the chocolate choo choo passes through the station, but obvious hyperbole is not the way to convince people of your argument.

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The last thing we need is more laws regulating people's behaviour - and how on earth would you police this?

If the price realistically reflected the cost, people would find better ways to get the job done. In truth, paper is incredibly abrasive, however soft it may feel when you squeeze it, and there are surely better strategies if we care to look for them.

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I recall that my wife bought several packages of the ultra-soft tissues a few years ago. I had to talk her out of buying more, not out of any concern for the forests, but because our toilets started to clog up.

Having read this article, I am gratified that my arguments had an even better purpose.

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Why are we not using 2 year old trees, as good as the 300 years old ones?

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This story stinks. TP made from valuable old-growth trees would have to cost about as much as silk. I'm not disparaging sustainable practices, like tickling the tush with a jet of water --- what fun! I am questioning the reliability of this information.

Along with the recent change of regime, we seem to be witnessing an extreme makeover of media coverage. It's no less slanted than when Bush was Maximum Leader, only different. Instead of phony terrorists, now we are to fear environmental holocaust.

Plus ca change, baby ...

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As this has been a pet peeve of mine for years I was gratified to read this article but I was a bit disappointed that the author offered no suggestions as to which companies sell TP from recycled paper products. Several years ago one of the environmental groups, can't recall which one, had a wallet sized card listing the brand names of earth friendly TP. Here are some of those listings: CVS pharmacy (the CVS store brand of which there are 2, one using 100% post consumer material and the other regular) they also carry paper towels from recycled paper. Any Publix grocery store in their Greenwise section, Marcal products and also any natural food store will have a section of earth friendly paper products although not always as friendly to your wallet as the others listed.

I liked the water sprayer idea, any suggestions on how to install it?

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That you want to pass LAWS regarding my post-defecation clean up is an indication of how much a bunch of a meddling, invasive fools you all are.

1. Global Warming is not universally accepted

2. The savings and efficiency of most re-cycle efforts is questionable as well - much collected still goes to the dump.

I really don't care how they do it in India or France - if I wanted to act like either I would live there instead, You worry about how to wipe your ass and I'll wipe mine.

Oh and by the way, I do think that my soft, thick ass tissue is worth more that your costal home. Swim for it.

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... who refuse rational arguments that laws need to be passed. Global warming is not universally accepted: true, neither is the notion that the earth is round. That is not a good reason to doubt it. Or are you a flat-earther too?
We do need a nanny state when adults reason and behave like tantrumy babies. Laws are welcome because they are the only way to deal with assholes like you who won't deprive themselves of a minimum of comfort no matter what their comfort costs to the rest of humanity or nature. Hey: asshole... toilet paper... ha ha ha! I made a funny!

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Oh please, all this carping about butt wiping is another example of progressives gone crap crazy. I spent three years planting trees for the major paper companies and various private land owners. I was a private contractor, by the way.
Each year I planted somewhere around a half a million seedlings on various locales (All the way from southern Mississippi to Maine). These plantings were made to produce pulp for the paper industry. I believe then, and still believe today, these plantings were a way to produce a useful product without harming the environment. On average, tree farming produces usable pulpwood sometime in the vicinity of twelve years of growth. Enough already about butt wiping and environmental cataclysms.... Find a more useful and critical subject to whine about.... like the upcoming water shortages which the capitalist enterprises will be sure to use to garner ever more ludicrous profits. Or the usurious practices of the banks which are opening check cashing stores at such a fast rate it is one of the most rapidly growing businesses in my home state.

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On the Guardian news site, someone calling himself redditor nailed this problem concisely. Stealing from him/her:

"Looks suspiciously like an attempt to inflame the ignorant by obfuscating the language.
For years environmentalists (including me) have been fighting the fight to keep virgin forests intact ... virgin being synonymous for "old growth" forests or forests that have never been logged commercially.

Now, the word -- with its previous emotional baggage -- is being applied to any unrecycled fibers. Sorry, but that's the kind of intentional slippage I expect from the multinationals of the world, not so-called environmentalists.

Toward the (pardon the pun) bottom of this piece, it finally comes out that "virgin" in this context is wood from tree farms (generally fast-growing pine) that are renewable resources (and wonderful carbon traps).

Given the energy expended on recycling v. that expended on tree-farm harvesting, I doubt there's really much difference ... just an attempt by an increasingly profit-oriented, horribly cynical environmental industry to scare the, ummm, crap out of people. . ."

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Besides an environmental disaster, these rolls of soft and fluffy TP are not economical. They run out much faster than their less soft counterparts. Then again, Scott's less comfy roll does not even last as long as it once did. Once this economy gets better, I say the way to go are bidets.

Mary MacElveen
http://www.marymacelveen.com

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How much $$$$$$$$$ is the "save the environment" INDUSTRY making off of all of these lies and scare tactics?

For those who actually have the ability to think and understand what they read, it is an easy task to dig through the lies.

The green weenies have become ADDICTED to this process of hysterically screaming/whining about EVERYTHING we do.
Their favorite target of course, is America.
Not because we use more of whatever, etc.
Rather it's because America is the easiest money fountain to tap into.
I don't buy their bullshit.

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Use your hand and water...follow up with a cotton cloth that can be washed and reused..many people of the world, especially those living in jungle areas use leaves and water...my grandfather had an outhouse, which I did not like using because it was not properly maintained, used old catalogs for wiping paper....we do like our comfort though...when my brother was in the jungles of Vietnam, one of the items he always asked for was toilet paper...I quess we always gravitate towards comfort..or maybe just laziness..toilet paper made from recycled materials has been available since the seventies...most just don't give a hoot...try using no paper...just your hand and water..of course wash your hands when finished..

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The problem with the environment is that there is a multiplicity of issues. How are we going to police all of those. More campaigns, more regulations?

We need to address the cause of the problems rather than the symptoms. We have to change the incentive structure of markets so that green products are more profitable. Industries will shift naturally to them just as they rapidly did with renewable energy when it became profitable last summer. See http://wavesofthefuture.net/ for one such strategy.

Engaging markets by markets by changing the profitability equation could be a powerful avenue for the future. Regulations and cap-and -trade is not going to be enough.

Tags: global warming and environmental strategies,
eco-taxation

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If ever there was an article that made its reader cry out "Oh, shit!" in anguish, it's this one.

Gotta stop using trees, people. I live in Arkansas, where, according to a widely held belief, corn cobs are in widespread use.

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from a fab cartoonist on the whole debacle

linked text

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Disgraceful that the Progressives/Libs/Marxists/Socialists are now sticking their noses in places were it is best left out.

If the hypocrite libs really cared about trees they would ban ethanol that is responsible for the destruction of millions of acres of forestland.

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I would say most people are not thinking about environmental issues when they select and purchase toilet paper.

I doubt if many people realize that soft and fluffy is not a green way to go. If they did, many would make another choice. This is a good example of the "free market always does the right thing" philosophy being full of crap. The free market is not always very well educated and sales copy is a terrible teaching method.

I also agree with the folks who said that it is impractical to think that they REALLY make toilet paper out of true virgin forests and therefore this article is highly exaggerated. That is never acceptable.

That being said, I also think better paper alternatives should be explored. Not just on toilet paper but with paper towels, paper napkins, printer paper and other forms of paper. As a whole, paper milling is extremely hazardous to the environment and the process as a whole needs some changes. Personally, I limit my use of all forms of paper for environmental reasons. Paper towels are easy to replace with cloth.

Insisting on using soft and fluffy to wipe our butts despite environmental concerns is a prime example of Americans being the greedy, spoiled brats of the world. Come on folks. Give a little!

Granny's crazy videos Go get a chuckle!

Luv,
Granny

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Three hundred year old trees are rarely used as pulpwood. Lumber, yes, and maybe the scraps are sold for pulping. The vast majority of pulpwood in the US is farmed specifically for that purpose.

Drive across Alabama and Georgia. You can't help but see stand after stand of very closely spaced pine trees. They grow for a few years (far fewer than 300), then they're cut with a machine that looks like a big pruning shear, stacked on trucks, and hauled off to make paper.

Yes, the pulp fiber that goes into making toilet paper in the US is predominantly virgin pulp. Meaning that it has never been processed into paper before. But "virgin" does not mean that it came from an old-growth, virgin forest.

Stop lying to people, and stop advocating that the freedoms and civil rights of American citizens be taken away or violated.

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....that will determine the "honesty" of the Obama administration. Toilet paper can be made from just about anything. If President Obama cannot or will not ban the use of trees for TP, then he is lying to the citizens.

And this is something that doesn't require hundreds of billions in "stimulus". Nor does it require days and weeks of "debate" in Congress. All it requires is an executive order, and immediate execution.

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Does anyone here have any good leads on portable bidets?

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Here is a link to the National Resources Defense Council which rates toilet paper companies use of recycled paper in their products, thus reducing or eliminating use of virgin paper to wipe our A$$es. Check it out and take it to the store when you shop:
http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp

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IMHO the solution is to simply legislate that ALL toilet paper MUST be made from 100% post-consumer-recycled content. Period. Not exactly rocket-science for our lawmakers to change.

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just one of many available models: http://www.biffy-bidet.com/bidet-features.html
As long as you don't live in the Southwest, this isn't too earth-unfriendly and would at least reduce the amount of toilet paper needed (not to mention personal odors). Not sure how you're supposed to dry off, though.

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Do Americans realized that bleaching toilet paper with chlorine to create that "hospital white" also leaves chemical residue and dioxins that enlarge hemorrhoids and inflame soft tissue.

Imagine a lifetime of using this stuff -- no wonder these problems peak at 65 years old.

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The thing is I just had to go.

And it was a sit down toilet.

Being an old sod with a bit of a muscular problem - the hole where you squat - I've always had a bit of a problem with - sure its mainly psychological - but if you watch slumdog millionaire you may understand - what might happen if you get it wrong

So I had no toilet paper

But there was a source of water in the bog

So I crapped

And thought well - what do I do now?

I actually have to wipe my own anus with my own hand and actually feel my own shit

The supply of water made it much better

What the fuck do you do in the desert?

Tony

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Sinead O'Connor :

Don’t tell your man what he don’t do right
Nor tell him all the things that make you cry
But check yourself for your own shit
And don’t be making out like it’s all his

Take a look around the world
You see such bad things happening
There are many good men
Ask yourself is he one of them

The deadliest of sin is pride
Make you feel like you’re always right
But there are always two sides
It takes two to make love, two to make a life

Take a look around the world
You see such mad things happening
There are few good men
Thank your lucky star that he’s one of them

Special Cases - Massive Attack

Tony

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Recycled material... end of issue... plus, I'm told the tons of lawn clippings we toss into landfill every year would make a fine paper, yet we just bury it all with the toxic rest. Could be an industry there... Grass for the Ass, or something.... you clever capitalists will figure it out if there is money to be made. Of course, there would be a black market for the plush stuff... sentences akin to those todays pot farmers receive.

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the sense in the world; however, I am guiltless in this regard, since I appreciate a little traction in this item.
Why are we not growing HEMP?! Crops of hemp could do so much to rescue our economy; grow it, tax it and use it in all of its myriad of uses! Is there a 6th grader in this country who doesn't get this; depends on who reared them, I guess.

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I still think that we should go back to using hemp to make paper.

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And try having Inflammatory Bowel Disease and using recycled/thin toilet paper. Then get back to me. Until then, I'm sticking with my thick Cottonelle with Aloe. I'm quite certain other Crohn's Disease patients would agree.

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Anyone know which brands are the most forest and global warming friendly?

I switched to Walgreen's knock-off of Scott's 1000 sheet one ply, which is not soft; I did it to save money, but I hope (and suspect) it's not a culprit ??

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We really haven't come a long way since wiping our hind quarters with pages from the SEARS catalog. I've never understood what the big hoopla is about fluffier toilet tissue.. it gets caught in crevices... costs more.. and has a higher chance of clogging your toilet than recycled tissue.

I suppose there are some jackasses out there who apparently enjoy wiping their asses with money, walking around with tree pulp between their cheeks, and getting their hands covered in $#!t when their toilets back up. Bravo!

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Only satan would out law Jahs gift to I M I. The tree of life REV 22-2 read it.

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Toilet and soft tissue use are really a way for people in the upper classes to distinguish themselves from the common folk who do it in the bushes. As American arrogance is downgraded with a little humility in the economics department, the way may be set for the use of more recycled materials in the ablutions department, or maybe even the use of re-usable wash cloths.

However, using water instead of paper still faces the major problem of declining water supplies, so we also need to mandate the universal use of waterless, composting toilets. It is estimated that a single individual in the West flushes 2500 times a year, which at 1.6 gallons a flush is 4000 gallons times 300 million is over 1 trillion gallons of water that is wasted every year in the US, at least, given that most toilets use far more water.

Using composting toilets would also serve the additional purposes of (1) producing fertilizer, which would help declining stocks of fertilizer, and (2) return to us the sense that waste is useful and not "dirty" and low class.

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really 'wiped' me out...

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I'm guilty. I like wiping my butt with super soft 2 ply. Now that I don't have a house, 401-K, or a future, it's one of the few simple pleasures I have left. If someone comes out with an ecofriendly alternative, I'll use it.

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Toilet paper from virgin forests? What nonsense! About the only virgin forest left in North America are the redwood forests in California. 98% of the trees grown today for toilet paper were planted specifically for that purpose.

I believe in protecting the environment, but making things up is sheer nonsense.

Just one more argument to march us down the road of living like they do in Russia.

My standard line is becoming: WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!! So wake up already to the BS!!!!

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I am always impressed by the quality and affordability of excellent toilet paper.
I love the double-quilting, the strength, and the impressive quality of top-shelf toilet paper.
To compromise the quality of my toilet paper is just a non-starter.
Life is too short to spend it using sub-standard paper.

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Not to be too indelicate, but hairy butthole + poo = dingleberries. Just simple biology. A few swipes with a razor when showering is all it takes to fix the problem. Not only does it reduce paper usage but it also is more consistent with my desired level of personal hygiene. Try it. It works. When combined with a good diet it makes for a smooth ride on the toilet with less post-poop cleanup.

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What is it with LIBERAL Idiots....Obama is spending this Country into the POOR HOUSE and now you want to attack Toilet Paper.
GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES.

In the next 5 years you won't even recognize America. We'll be living under a Dictatorship and Big Brother will be Every where you go. Marshall Law and Troops from Foregin countries will partole and police your neighborhoods. I doubt you'll be thinking about Toliet Paper because you won't have enough to eat in order to have any need for it.

Don't even think of trying to leave this " LIBERAL UTOPIA " you all Voted for....The Borders have been SEALED !
Now do you think Toliet paper is your Biggest Problem???

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Hi. I'm angry. And smug. And loud. Probably man hating, most likely self-righteous. Dont believe any conspiracies but my own. Cant do much else bit bitch and moan and tell everyone I live in San Francisco, and therefore, am a superior being.

Sheesh

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I'll check out the "slim" book. Thanks for the suggestion.

But please address my thesis: if there is genuine scarcity, costs should too high for use as TP.

It's regrettable we can't live in a garden of Eden, pristine and somehow "virgin." But since we don't and can't, we need "tree farms," which are a form of recycling if you will, to produce "virgin" fibers. BTW, I love that word -- so loaded with connotation. Its use is an indicator that there is a propagandist at work.

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practically evaporates while you watch it. Fluffy is to toilet paper as cotton candy is to sugar.

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I buy reasonable quality toilet paper because, like lots of we primitive Europeans, I use it for other things - blowing my nose, removing makeup and cleanser from my face etc. So, if I buy cheaper paper I will have to use substitues - cotton wool, more expensive tissues. Given that most toilet paper is produced from softwoods, and hence renewable, it's worth looking at the whole chain of production. To me, its a bit like the fact that supermarkets now dole out plastic carrier bags very grudgingly - so I have to actually buy plastic wastebin liners and dog poo bags, don't have anything handy to keep paintbrushes moist whilst decorating, or to hold my recycling. Yes, I do know that plastic bags are a real environmental hazard in parts of Africa, but I don't live their.

Easy gestures make us feel good, but too often are essentially meaningless. Perhaps they are pushed by the middle classes in order to distract us from confronting the hard truth that the real answers involve substantive changes of life style. Too often, professional greens fail to examine issues in real life terms and neglect to examine the whole eco-impact chain. However, they are pretty good at making people like me (who has tried to be fairly green for years) think "sod it" and throw the cardboard in the general waste.

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OK folks, listen up one more time. Hemp can supply all of our needs for fiber, fuel, food, medicine and my personal favorite, recreation.

Jack Herer, the "Emperor of Hemp" wrote The Emperor Wears No Clothes". You can read the entire book online at
linked text = http://jackherer.com

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“More environmental damage than gas guzzling cars” I really have a problem with that statement offered as fact. Where are your facts? Let me examine the data. Statements like this usually come from the right-wing fear mongers. I find anything less than the truth to be damaging to our righteous cause. Let me shoot from the hip once: I bet it is more damaging to produce just one vehicle than all the toilet paper I use in a lifetime. See my comments elsewhere as I do get a “clean break” most of the time. I do use the 1000 sheet/roll non-virgin stuff just because I’m cheap. It works fine and always wash your hands.

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so let's get together with the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council and everyone else we can think of to push for using more recycled paper for our butt-wipe!

Sheesh.

Let's "just do it".

Mo Rage
http://www.moravings.blogspot.com

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300 year old trees?? Less than 2% of them live in the US and they are pegged as 'dangerous' and ripe for clearcutting as
failed forestcrop policies attest.

Clearcutting ruins the land and what's left of the woodlands and takes nearly a century to recover from if at all.

Julia Butterfly Hill fought to save sequoias from being turned into housing lumber. She saved a small amount of them. Of those she couldn't save,the wood was of such poor quality it was only good enough to make pencils. So you better respect that #2 pencil,it's over a thousand years old. Truth is there's no way the timber company didn't know the quailty of the wood they were taking down,they just got paid to remove it.

Trees have a much more important function than providing us with asswipe,writing paper and firewood. They clean the lower atmosphere of all the crud we pump into it. Convert CO2 into breathable air and draw in carbon from the air,and it's the lower atmosphere where it is we live.

Think of it this way... If you took out of your lungs very small pieces of them. not a lot but steadily took small pieces away without giving your lungs time to heal and repair themselves....just how long do you think you'd survive? 10 years? 20? Maybe you'd get lucky and live for 40 years,but at the end of that time you'd be out of breath just buttoning you shirt or working the zipper on you jeans. Then what would you do? You'd lament the folly of taking pieces of lungs out and wish you'd thought better of the idea.

That's exactly where we are at now. The Earth is a 'Living Planet' and we have fowled the air with our emmissions and removed much of our lung capacity...the trees.

If we don't get our collective act together we won't be wondering about buying our children the next hot new gaming system or Ipod replacement it will be which personal oxygen system we can afford.

I support a total and complete ban on logging for a least the next 200 years. We have plenty of other building materials to choose from and more than enough farmcrops that can make paper. Besides,if you're reading this,on this site,you just helped save more than one tree. Aren't you glad you're part of the solution.

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Considering the demise of the Rocky Mountain News just the other day, this seems an ill-timed article - it's just a little difficult to worry about t.p.

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Employ jobless Republican and Neocon lawyers and politicians to wipe our left-wing arses. Then a final swipe with their tongues. No muss, no fuss, no blunderbuss!

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Employ jobless Republican and Neocon lawyers and politicians to wipe our left-wing arses. Then a final swipe with their tongues. No muss, no fuss, no blunderbuss!

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The price of recycled toilet paper in my area is twice as much for half as much paper.

Also, this article made it seem like all Americans are worried about is soft, fluffy paper for their delicate rear ends.

Puhleeeeeeze!

The toilet paper I use is not soft, nor is it 2 ply, but it does last a month for 6 bucks.

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so, does being vegetarian for 34 years and vegan for 9 years "cancel out" the evil sin of using soft and comfy asswipe?

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I happen to live in an area that supplies many major brand TP paper mills with logs. They are not virgin forest, they are industrial forests growing fast growing aspen family trees specifically for paper pulp.

Bigger or first growth trees are not cut, or if they are after they die, they are quite revered for veneer and large lumber. They would never end up in a pulp mill.

Our area has dozens of paper mills and produces probably at least 2% of domestic paper including TP. It is probably 5x or 10x that. It is not virgin forest.

Most people around here are pretty happy about having vast forests producing pulp logs. Having 3% of it cut every year leaves millions of acres of habitat and recreational land as well as a lot of good paying jobs.

Some enviros wanted to stop it, and the result would have been selling the land for development. They were sent packing.

This lady sat in her office and made up some bullshit out of thin air, and now wants your money to fight her phantom problem.

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from office paper, magazines, etc. AND it is quite soft (not Cottonelle, but still soft), AND it is affordable.

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.....to clean the arse without soft toilet paper is to apply soft soap to the hand, then apply the hand to the arse, rub vigorously, and then wash off the hand and the arse in the sink.

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in our house, we use toilet cloth. we cut up squares of cloth out of old flannel receiving blankets (about $1-2 each at the thrift store). we don't even hem them. we just use them to wipe, toss them in a wet bag (a storage bag treated on the inside to make it waterproof) and wash them with our son's cloth diapers. cloth for him, cloth for us. we also use cloth wipes for him. female products? silicone catcher cups and cloth pads.

really, it's not that difficult to be a little smarter and little more "permanent" in our solutions to these problems.

and if your flannel toilet cloth is scratchy, well, chances are you grabbed a dirty piece!

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Tree protectors of the world: Get a life!

Your Ph.D.'s in Toilet-Paper-Metrics are unneeded and unwanted.

The real crimes here are being committed by over-zealous environmentalists who have too much time on their hands and too little to do, and so they spend their lives thinking of ways they can interfere with the lives of others by regulating the kind of toilet paper they use!

Find something useful to do!

Leave us alone!

We don't need you to tell us how to live our lives or what to do every second of the day.

You don't know what's best for everyone else!

RESIGN AS MANAGER OF THE UNIVERSE!!!

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It's a sick testament, mans greed, mans ignorance, mans blindness, but mostly the greed,to the "intelligence" of the human species. Lately we seem to be reverting back to times that were supposed to be learning periods in our evolution, lessons we've learned already are being repeated too often.
Lets take hemp for example, 1 acre of hemp produces 4.1 times the usable pulp of the same acre of hundred year old (or older)trees. So outlawing a plant based on voodoo science is a criminal act. All the crap the government spews forth about the harmful effects of hemp are lies. I know, you think I'm crazy, how could our government lie to anybody, let alone the "people"? Hello people, guess what I've found out, without much trouble, the fact that the government has suppressed such a beneficial substance under false law, is not the job of government, in fact the complete opposite of the role of government. the war on drugs has caused more harm and death, wasted more money, gives huge tax breaks to criminals, promotes drug availability in schools, and is just none of their damn business how I enjoy myself, as long as I don't cause harm. And it's all a lie.

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...it is astonishing to me that at this late date this comes as breaking news to anybody! Are we Americans really this slow to "get it"? Why oh why can we not move on and grow hemp? It's time to "sh-t or get off the pot"! If it's good enough for the first American flag and the first draft of the constitution why is it not good enough for our back sides?!
And before I "go off" on my inevitable rant (can't help myself- I will repeat this stuff until it SINKS IN!) it bares noting that we're a pack of complete a--holes if we're REALLY this spoiled rotten while the care packages being sent by military families must routinely include (besides functional body amour) frikken toilet paper because Bushes military was THAT broken!
----------------------------------------------------------
The rant:
The MidWest is heating and drying up twice as fast as the rest of the world; the Colorado River no longer even reaches the sea! Oil is to our energy needs as trees and cotton are to our paper and clothing needs. In other words among the many exciting fuel alternatives we need to grow hemp! It's cheap to grow (thrives in drought conditions) and is very high profit.

We need to regard the decline of big-oil as a wonderful opportunity, an opportunity to lighten our footstep and embrace the change.
The Arctic ice cap will shrink more than 40 percent by 2050. In Antarctica a vast ice shelf, hanging on by a thin strip, will be the next chunk to break off from the Peninsula. An iceberg measuring 25 miles by 1.5 miles has broken away from The Wilken Ice Shelf. The entire ice shelf, about 6,180 square miles, is collapsing. It was predicted in 1993 that the northern part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf was likely to be lost within 30 years if warming continued at the same rate. The demise of the planet 50% AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!

With our innovative spirit and long history of manufacturing prowess The United States could be spearheading the solutions instead we're part of the axis of evil (America, China and Australia). But we can beat Exxon Mobile at their own game because, second only to Australia, America has the largest geothermal resources in the world (wind and solar capacity). Our beleaguered midwest is capable of producing enough wind-power to meet ALL of Americas electricity needs while the southwest could do the same (without the need for even a single rooftop solar panel) while also fueling a plug-in hybrid for every single American. PLUS: hemp thrives in dry conditions so, again, lets embrace the possibilities!

For a fraction of the cost of the "city-sized" "embassy we allowed Bush to build in Iraq, we could begin to upgrade our ancient power-transmission system so that we can deliver solar, wind and other renewable energy across the country thus becoming a "glowing example" and global inspiration! Aside from massively reducing global warming, of course, the added benefit would be restoring the shattered economy by boosting home bred industry- once the pride of our once great nation.

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that I haven't read here so far.
One is, that if you use a lot of toilet paper maybe you need to think about how you're eating.
I know when I eat well I need very little toilet paper. I call them clean poos.
The second is I have read one or two articles in the last year that toilet paper might be responsible for hemorroids. They pointed out that on the cellular level basicly what you have is tiny sharp splinters tearing away at your cells.
peter g

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How about if we all gave up toilet paper altogether, or almost altogether as the Japanese have? How, you ask, is that possible?

Well, the Japanese have pioneered in a new appliance called a washlet that replaces your toilet seat and has a simple plumbing connection that any person could do themselves and a plug into the wall. The washlet has a built-in device that with a push of a button on your wall, will wash you and dry you, so that most of the time you won't need any toilet paper at all, or if you insist on using some, only a sheet or two is necessary.

Since I got my washlets (ordered through one of the overstock websites), I'm using about 1 roll of toilet paper a month. And, I think that given the very small amount of water and electricity that the washlet uses, the net benefit from both a water and energy efficiency standpoint is great.

Plus, with washlets, you are much cleaner. Truly. Would you, after having some noxious substance poured or smeared on your face or hands, feel "clean" if you simply wiped said substance off with a tissue? I think not, so why should we think that we're clean by using toilet paper?

In Japan, washlets are now everywhere, even in public toilets. I think we need to get them too. That, in my opinion, is the only true solution to the US toilet paper obsession.

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TOILET PAPER: When we think of toilet paper it brings one thing to mind--- Rush Limpberg Cheese and his foul mouth and hateful spewing mindset!!!

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I live in the Pacific Northwest. In my town, Aberdeen we made the pulp and paper. The mills have recently closed. (The remaining one has won environmental awards.) Before they did, I never saw any 300 year old trees being hauled to the mill. They are mostly gone except for those in National and state parks. No one is cutting those. A few really old, big trees remain in small noncorporate hands and when one of these is trucked through town, it is so rare as to stop conversation and traffic.
Where I volunteer we make wooden masts for the world's heirloom ships. We would love to know where, locally anyway, one could find 300 year old trees (Douglas fir. Which is used in paper too.) as the Zodiac must be remasted soon.

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Bidet's are used all over Europe and i would love to buy an affordable Bidet that I could attacj to my toilet. I hate using toilet paper anyway.

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Rabelais comes to mind:-

I have, said Gargantua, by a long and curious experience, found out a means to wipe my bum, the most lordly, the most excellent, and the most convenient that ever was seen.

and a few paragraphs further:-

Who his foul tail with paper wipes,
Shall at his ballocks leave some chips.

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