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3/1/09

Guardian/EU-Digest: The Environment - Multi-Ply Toilet Paper - Nice for the Butt, bad for the Environment

Nice for the butt, bad for the environment

For the complete report from the guardian.co.uk click on this link

The Environment - The Environment - Multi-Ply Toilet Paper - Nice for the Butt, bad for the Environment

The tenderness of the delicate American buttock is causing more environmental devastation than the country's love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions, according to green campaigners. At fault, they say, is the US public's insistence on extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply products when they use the bathroom. "This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution." Making toilet paper has a significant impact because of chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests.

More than 98% of the toilet roll sold in America comes from virgin forests, said Hershkowitz. In Europe and Latin America, up to 40% of toilet paper comes from recycled products. Greenpeace this week launched a cut-out-and-keep ecological ranking of toilet paper products.

Note EU-Digest: What did people use before toilet paper? Well, just use your imagination: grass, leaves, fur, mussel shells, corncobs, stinging nettles... okay, maybe not that last, at least not more than once. The ancient Greeks used stones and pieces of clay; ancient Romans used sponges on the ends of sticks, kept in jugs filled with salty water. Corncobs and pages torn from newspapers and magazines were commonly used in the early American West. People from the Middle East and the Mediterranean commonly used the left hand, which is supposedly still considered unclean in the Arabian region. In 1928 Hans Klenk became the first European to roll paper bands however the American Arthur Scott had previously accomplished the same effect in 1890. W.C. Alcock created an alternative to the current popular newspaper use in the 1880s. The modern toilet paper roll has definitely made life much easier and more hygienic for us all. At last count there were over 5,000 companies who produce bathroom tissue in various parts of the globe. If we can use recycled paper to make bathroom tissues and thereby contribute to a cleaner environment, why not?

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