Posted on 07/06/2019 8:03:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Toilet paper – the one product that the majority of us use just once and flush away – is becoming less sustainable, according to research.
Analysis from Ethical Consumer magazine found that major brands were using less recycled paper than in 2011, while only five of the nine major supermarkets (the Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose) offered own-brand recycled toilet paper. The large-scale use of virgin paper contributes to unnecessary deforestation.
The UK uses 1.3m tonnes of tissue a year, according to the Confederation of Paper Industries, with the average British consumer reportedly getting through 127 rolls every year. But the growing trend for “luxury” four-ply and quilted toilet roll is fuelling the use of virgin pulp in an effort to create the softest product, the study claims.
“There is no need to cut down forests to make toilet roll, yet this is precisely what is happening,” said Alex Crumbie, a researcher for Ethical Consumer. “With consumer attention focused on plastic, some of the big brands have slowed and even reversed their use of recycled paper in the toilet rolls they make.”
The study singles out Kimberly-Clark, one of the biggest suppliers of toilet tissue worldwide. The proportion of recycled wood pulp used by the company has fallen over the years. In 2011, just under 30% of the total fibre used was recycled, but by 2017 this figure had fallen to 23.5%. Its popular Andrex brand used to offer a recycled/bamboo range but this was discontinued in 2015.
A 2017 Greenpeace report warned that large parts of Sweden’s Great Northern Forest, and the biodiversity contained within it, were under threat from the timber industry’s growing demand for virgin wood.
The new research flags to consumers that the chemicals used in the production of recycled paper are far less toxic
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Sheryl Crow uses one sheet over and over.
Yep. Cut off gas and oil, and feed everyone maggots, and the boys wear dresses, open borders, etc. That’s the plan, at least the parts of it they’re willing to share.
waiting for Cal to ban single use TP
What part of renewable resource don’t they understand? Paper companies grow trees as crops and manage them.
Sheryl Crow is a birdbrain.
Less recycled paper because there are a lot fewer newspapers to recycle. Do schools even have monthly paper drives any more?
“The new research flags to consumers that the chemicals used in the production of recycled paper are far less toxic”
This article is so full of out and out lies it is impossible to address them.
As the above, they forget that the mills have to de-ink that papers for use on the market. Then it has to be bleached in the same way virgin pulp is bleached. Then add to the fact that the fiber is cooked again and looses its strength.
Besides that. There is more timber going to waste than is being harvested.
BTW. KC has most of its plants in Central and South America and not in the USA. Mexico for example.
There are no new pulp mills that have been built in this country in a long while. The EPA rules and regs prevent them being built even though the discharge from those mills is nearly non existent compared to say...a city sewage plant.
I use a corn cob. Earth first.
Well back to the Roman way , sponge on a stick and everyone uses it
That and they determined that Eucalyptus made softer..
It may be less sustainable in the British Isles, but it’s no problem here. Notice, that entire article was about the Brits; not about us. American paper manufacturers have huge well managed tree farms and there is no shortage of raw material.
The paper companies do.
And with modern genetics, they can grow trees for specific usage in just a few years.
The same type of tree can be grown for pulp or genetically altered to be grown for lumber.
Old growth trees aren’t being used for pulp anyway.
We have the answer for it. Iowa Corn cobs. The only set back is they can’t be flushed.
Indeed they are.
I noticed a commercial recently for some paper products made from bamboo which is “sustainable.” The ad featured a shot of a huge old tree being cut down.
I doubt anybody anywhere is cutting down several-hundred-year-old trees for toilet paper. They’re using trees planted for the purpose of being made into paper.
It mentioned Swedish forests, I think, so maybe it’s a W Europe problem.
It could be a bigger market for US makers of toilet tissue.
“the average British consumer reportedly getting through 127 rolls every year”
Is this saying the average Brit goes through a roll in less than 3 days?
Industrial hemp to the rescue.
“127 rolls every year’
Good lord. Do fish and chips with jellied eels run thru you that fast?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.