Your browser may have trouble rendering this page. See supported browsers for more information.

|<<>>|94 of 208 Show listMobile Mode

Old Growth Forests

Published by marco on

Stop wiping your ass with them.

According to this article, Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests by Leslie Kaufman (NY Times), “[a]lthough 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.”

Regrettably, America manages to stand pretty much alone in demanding super-soft toilet paper for home use, although even in European countries, recycled paper makes up only 20% of paper intended for home use. That’s still ten times as much as the U.S. market, though.

There’s a lot of room for improvement on both sides of the pond and it’s a relatively easy step to take, so maybe Americans can prove the world wrong and see if they can’t beat Europe in at least this one measly statistic. Maybe the economic crisis will force people to turn to cheaper, recycled paper.[1]


[1] Attention: to avoid ruining the above article with cynicism, do not read any further. If we care to use history as a guide, it’s far more likely that companies making soft paper are heavily subsidized so that they can stay “competitive”. Once these all-American businesses start floundering, they’ll appeal to the government for even more price protection, spread some money around Washington for good booze and better hookers and pretty soon the recycled-paper companies will be out of business.