Wiped out: America's love of luxury toilet paper is destroying Canadian forests

We’re all becoming more aware about the damage single-use plastics and fast fashion has on the environment. Yet there is one product we all throw away every single day that, so far, has not been a major part of conversations about sustainability: toilet paper. But America’s heavy use of toilet paper – particularly the pillowy soft kind – is worsening climate change and taking “a dramatic and irreversible toll” on forests, especially the Canadian boreal forest, according to a new report by two major environmental groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Stand.earth. Americans are particularly to blame for this crisis. They make up just over 4% of the world’s population, yet account for more than 20% of global tissue consumption. The average four-person household in the US uses over 100lb of toilet paper a year. Are there any options out there to prevent this destruction? Well, in ancient Rome they used a sponge on a stick, which they would then leave in a pot of vinegar to be used again. The Talmud, the central text of Jewish law, prescribes a handful of gravel, with stones to be “the size of an olive, a nut and an egg” for greatest effectiveness. Fortunately, we are unlikely to have to resort to such measures. Not all toilet paper is equally damaging and many manufacturers are already making more environmentally friendly products using recycled materials...MORE

They have already passed a law limiting the size of our toilets ( In 1992 U.S. President George H. W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act. This law made 1.6 gallons per flush a mandatory federal maximum for new toilets. This law went into effect in January 1, 1994 for residential buildings and January 1, 1997 for commercial buildings). How long will it before they pass a law limiting our choice of toilet paper? From low-flow toilets to eco-friendly wipes, the DC Deep Thinkers and the toilet police are headed our way.