It’s Time To Rethink How Much Toilet Paper We Use


What’s So Bad About Toilet Paper?

Toilet paper has such a large environmental impact that the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) published not one, not two, but three reports in three years about the crisis.

Americans are the heaviest per capita users of toilet paper in the world. Most major U.S. brands rely on wood from the Canadian boreal forest. This forest is particularly important from a climate standpoint. According to NRDC reports:

“This great northern forest is the most carbon-dense, intact forest left on the planet, locking up in its soils and trees twice as much carbon as the world’s oil reserves.”

Logging in the boreal forest releases an estimated 26.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That’s roughly a quarter of all the carbon emitted from all the trucks in cars in the U.S. in 2019. Among the ways that toilet paper adds carbon into the atmosphere:

  1. Logging disrupts carbon within the soil.
  2. The forest’s ability to absorb carbon is reduced.
  3. When the TP breaks down, it releases more carbon.

It’s Made With Mostly Virgin Fibers

We’re finally having a national and global conversation about reducing our consumption of resources. Yet there is little progress in replacing virgin fibers with recycled paper content for toilet paper.

TP manufacturers rely heavily on virgin wood fibers to create their products. They are reluctant to seek alternatives due in part to consumer demand and expectations. Yet using post-consumer recycled content has significant benefits. Toilet paper made with post-consumer recycled content:

  • Has a smaller carbon footprint
  • Requires less energy to clean and separate fibers
  • Uses fewer harsh chemicals, including bleach, in its processes
  • Uses less water

How Much TP Do We Use?

Each person in the U.S. uses an estimated 141 rolls of toilet paper per year. Despite accounting for about 4% of the global population, Americans use 20% of the world’s toilet paper. Disturbingly, if you measured the toilet paper an average American uses in their lifetime, it would equal about 634 miles.

Looking at that another way, it takes one tree to make roughly 1,500 rolls of toilet paper. That comes out to over 31 million trees to make just one year’s supply of TP for everyone in the U.S.

The average per-person use of TP in Portugal, Germany, and the U.K. is 137, 134, and 127 rolls, respectively.

Not everyone uses this much TP, though. A recent study looked at the average use of this paper product throughout the world and found that Italy, France, and Finland use less than one-half of the amount we use in the U.S. Many countries use even less. 

Give Bidets a Try

In countries across Asia, Europe, and South America, people use bidets instead of toilet paper. Bidets come in many forms. All of them involve spraying water on your bottom to keep it clean.

Bidets are catching on slowly in the U.S., due to their lower environmental impact. Even Forbes magazine advocates switching to a bidet. They state that bidets are “more hygienic and better for the environment.”

Not a Fan of Bidets? Try Better Toilet Paper

We’re creatures of habit. We don’t like change, so a large-scale switch to bidets isn’t likely anytime soon. But switching toilet paper brands isn’t such a big change.

If you can’t imagine not wiping your backside, there are better-for-the-planet TP brands. Earth911 has a buying guide to help you find more sustainable TP brands.

MORE:  https://earth911.com/living-well-being/rethink-toilet-paper-use/

               https://earth911.com/how-and-buy/sustainable-toilet-paper-buyers-guide/

World Toilet Paper Consumption, Visualised

Key Findings

  • China uses over 4 billion miles of toilet paper each year – more than any other country.
  • The average Portuguese person uses 643.36 miles of toilet paper in their lifetime – more than any other nationality.
  • It takes 31.11 million trees each year to supply the US with toilet paper.
  • Stretched out, the UK’s annual toilet paper usage would reach to Mars and back – when Mars is at its furthest point from Earth.


 

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