Skip to main content

The Great Toilet Paper Debate


Yes, sorry mom. Here is yet another thing I am insisting we change in the house.

Here's a couple Did-you-knows to help start proving my point (via Greenseal) :
40% of trash in landfills is paper products
30% of the timber harvested annually in the US is used to make paper products

And yes mom, I hear your first argument " But when it gets to a landfill, it breaks down eventually. AND it still has to go to a landfill after it's used- recycled or not"

First of all, nothing breaks down in landfills anymore.
Since the 1960's the US has invested in something called sanitary landfills. Sounds nice, right? Well it means that be basically lead-line all of our landfills so nothing can seep into the soil and contaminate it because of all the toxins inside of things we use everyday: mercury, formaldehyde, BPA, etc. Things that, if they did leak into the soil could reach the water table and make a lot of people very very sick. So they are necessary. However, without access to the natural processes and bacteria needed to break things down- nothing does. So even food waste, which benefits the soil and yes- our paper towel and toilet paper- sits stagnant in a landfill.

Secondly, good point- it will eventually still get to a landfill. So why change the way you have been doing things? Well, for every ton of 100% recycled toilet paper and paper towel product used, you are saving about 4,100 kilowatt-hours of energy (look at your electric bill to get an idea of how much money that is), 7,000 gallons of water, and over 60 pounds of air pollutants. Well how is that possible? Because that is how much more energy is required to make your box of tissues or roll of toilet paper when trees are cut down to make it for you.

Next my Mom would argue, "Well I just don't see how it makes that much of a difference if just I do it. I like how regular toilet paper feels- not the recycled stuff"

Well, there are a lot of different products out there- and many are quite comfortable. But at the end of the day- you need to stop being selfish. When you purchase paper products that are from 100% virgin sources, it takes 3.5 tons of virgin timber to make 1 ton of toilet paper. The rest gets trashed. And maybe just you doing it would not have an impact, but everyone take son that mindset. And yes, your choices and action affect me, our town, global communities, and future generations.
With 80% of the world's ancient forests already destroyed, are you willing to continue this habit just because you don't like change? Your grandchildren, and great grandchildren deserve to play amongst the same trees and forests you did. And with Climate change growing ever more ominous- no one can afford the cost of virgin toilet paper.


Let me put it this way- in a time when we are struggling to reforest and sequester carbon, it takes 90 years to grow one box of Kleenex- and that's a lot longer than I'm willing to wait to blow my nose.


sources: Kleercut Campaign
Greenpeace
Greenseal Report
etc.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eating Garbage

Garbage is Beautiful. And let me tell you why. In 2010, the EPA estimated the US produced over 240 million tons of municipal solid waste. That is over four pounds of garbage, per person, per day. We travel through our day throwing things ‘away’. But where do they go? Does your trash go to a landfill, incinerator, or Waste to Energy Plant? Currently in NJ, thirteen counties have solid waste landfills and five counties have resource recovery facilities (incinerators). Of the five counties with resource recovery facilities, three also have landfills to receive waste that cannot be burnt. Eight counties have awarded waste disposal contracts and require that all waste be sent to one facility for disposal. The remaining thirteen counties have a free market system and transporters may send waste out of the county or state. The majority of us don’t know information like this, and don’t care as long as we don’t have to look at it. But if we were forced to look at the garb...
Post a Comment
Read more

Covid, baby

Working in the sustainability field has been turned on its head during the Coronavirus pandemic. I went on a short hiatus to become a Mom (Elliott was born in March of 2020 only a few days before lockdown in NJ), and when I resurfaced, our approach needed to be different, here are some examples: Typically, the balance between ample fresh air within a building and energy use would result in driving the building toward lower energy use. Now, the ability to increase the outdoor air is desirable and is carrying more importance as a design consideration. We almost always pursued green cleaning operations and maintenance plans with our projects, however the Green Seal certified (or other healthy for people) cleaning products do not disinfect to the level desired for Covid- forcing teams to decide between abandoning their healthy cleaning policies and safety. Everything is packaged and sealed, and wrapped again. Cafes stopped allowing refillable coffee cups, towns that had plastic ba...
Post a Comment
Read more

Breaking News- Renewable Energy can STILL power our planet!

Yesterday, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an exciting report about the potential of Renewables and the world energy market. Over 120 world experts produced a scientific document over 1,000 pages long that provides a solution to 'business as usual' carbon emissions. They believe that we could meet the globe's energy needs with 80% renewable energies by mid-century . This would be a socially, politically, and physically strenuous task. If we eliminate all the complications and shift our paradigm, we still have issues like that which Ramon Pichs, Co-Chair of the Working Group III, added: “The report shows that it is not the availability of the resource, but the public policies that will either expand or constrain renewable energy development over the coming decades. Developing countries have an important stake in this future—this is where most of the 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live yet also where some of the best conditi...
Post a Comment
Read more