Citizens taking action ~ Vancouver, Lower Mainland, and beyond.


Thursday, February 26, 2009

"No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper." Alan Hershkowitz, NRDC

Read this interesting story from the New York Times/Herald Tribune:

Americans like their toilet tissue soft: exotic confections that are silken, thick and hot-air-fluffed.

The national obsession with soft paper has driven the growth of brands like Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra and Charmin Ultra — which in 2008 alone increased its sales by 40 percent in some markets, according to Information Resources, Inc., a marketing research firm.

But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. Although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber taken from standing trees that help give it that plush feel, and most large manufacturers rely on them...

Here's the Greenpeace shopper's guide to ancient-forest friendly tissue.

No comments: