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Soft toilet paper becomes target of environmentalists
kansas.com ^ | 12-17-09 | Donald Bradley

Posted on 12/17/2009 12:27:42 PM PST by smokingfrog

"They'll take my Ultra Soft Charmin only when they pry it from my cold, dead, aloe-smelling hands."

Highly doubtful it will come to that. Please, sit.

We're talking about toilet paper. Charlton Heston's famous vow was of guns.

The issue over tissue in the bathroom — the really super-soft stuff — is more like the fight about the big SUVs loved by many Americans.

Anti-green, environmentalists say. Politically incorrect. Why should Americans use luxurious toilet paper made from old-growth trees when much of the world gets by with a far more basic and often recycled product?

Why should we flush redwoods, so to speak?

So Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups have pushed manufacturers such as Kimberly-Clark (Cottonelle) and Procter & Gamble (Charmin) to stop using wood from virgin forests to make tissue products.

Mountains of paper are dumped every day into recycling bins in homes, offices, factories and schools. Use that to make toilet paper, the activists say.

Time to roll off the big number: If each American family would buy one recycled roll just one time, it would save 400,000 trees, allegedly.

The problem, though, is that each time paper is shredded during the recycling process, its fibers get shorter. The shorter the fiber, the less soft the tissue. And Americans, though saying in surveys that they embrace green initiatives, also say they don't want to sacrifice comfort.

"The truth is that other parts of the world are further along in using recycled content," said Kay Jackson, spokeswoman for Kimberly-Clark. "The American consumer still wants softness, and they are speaking with their pocketbooks."

Pulling back in a competitive market is asking a lot, manufacturers say. They also point out that only 5 percent of forest-industry production goes toward toilet paper.

(Excerpt) Read more at kentucky.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: angelsoft; buttwipe; charmin; cottonelle; napl; northern; toiletpaper
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To: smokingfrog

I buy the Scott 1,000 sheet rolls for my household, we don’t need puffy squishy paper.

However I will defend the free market right to buy such paper.


41 posted on 12/17/2009 12:40:17 PM PST by GraceG
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To: smokingfrog
Put Greenpeacers in prison and give ‘em pine-cones to save the trees.
42 posted on 12/17/2009 12:41:05 PM PST by Navy Patriot (Sarah and the Conservatives will rock your world.)
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To: smokingfrog

There’s too much soft toilet paper out there. I haven’t found a TP I like since they added quilting to Scotts to disguise their short-sheeting....


43 posted on 12/17/2009 12:41:15 PM PST by Eepsy (www.pioacademy.org)
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To: smokingfrog

Let ‘em have sandpaper.


44 posted on 12/17/2009 12:41:57 PM PST by windsorknot (o o)
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To: ken5050
Newsprint isn't too good anyway. Doesn't clean very well, just smears, aiding in quicker drying ......☺
45 posted on 12/17/2009 12:42:38 PM PST by Quickgun (As a former fetus, I'm opposed to abortion. Pray for Obama,Psalms109:8)
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To: smokingfrog

I’d be happy to send my used toilet paper to the White Hut so the first family can re-use it. Just doing my part for the environment!


46 posted on 12/17/2009 12:42:41 PM PST by silverleaf (More folks being invited to the White House for Holiday parties than are being sent to Afghanistan)
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To: smokingfrog

I say grind up enviromentalists and make them into toilet paper.

I’d happily make use of that product.


47 posted on 12/17/2009 12:42:48 PM PST by reagan_fanatic (Socialism is hip until somebody loses a paycheck)
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To: smokingfrog

These people surely are Satan’s minions!


48 posted on 12/17/2009 12:43:27 PM PST by right way right
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To: BossLady
I thought those were fancy drinking fountains.
49 posted on 12/17/2009 12:44:19 PM PST by Manic_Episode (Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps...)
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To: smokingfrog
How fitting: As we move from soft tyranny to hard tyranny, we move from soft TP to hard TP.

I was told by a friend who experienced the Castro takeover, that a good early sign of Marxism is that normal TP disappears.

50 posted on 12/17/2009 12:44:39 PM PST by C210N (A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything you have)
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To: GeronL
They can do what they like. Me, I gonna keep squeezin’ the Charmin . . . . :-))
51 posted on 12/17/2009 12:48:10 PM PST by colorado tanker (What's it all about, Barrrrry? Is it just for the power, you live?)
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To: IamConservative

52 posted on 12/17/2009 12:50:08 PM PST by Manic_Episode (Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps...)
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To: smokingfrog

Recycling aside, toilet paper does a terrible job of cleaning the backside. Using a bidet, handheld sprayer, or other washing system is way more hygenic.


53 posted on 12/17/2009 12:50:57 PM PST by Little Pig (Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.)
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To: smokingfrog

This is not about the environment, it is about power.

If this was the 1890s when industries did not care what harm was done to their local environment, these people may have had a point. They have won that battle. We have more than enough environmental laws on the books, we are not going back to those bad old days.

Environmentalist have managed to turn our once mighty industrial nation into a shadow of it’s former self. In some cases it has made it too expensive to do anything.

Enough already.

Man made global warming is a hoax. We have crippled our self by giving up on known energy sources (oil and coal).

We can drill for oil without destroying the world, and we can use these energy sources without polluting the air.

It is not about the ecology, it is about power and control.

Currently they are in charge and our nation is paying a steep price. It is not going to be pretty when this all comes to a crashing end.


54 posted on 12/17/2009 12:52:00 PM PST by CIB-173RDABN
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To: Slings and Arrows; martin_fierro

ping


55 posted on 12/17/2009 12:52:29 PM PST by EveningStar
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To: smokingfrog

I’ll pass on the “John Wayne” paper, thanks. Give me my nice soft Cottonelle, any day of the week.


56 posted on 12/17/2009 12:52:49 PM PST by wbill
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To: smokingfrog
Tissue and toweling is the only part of the paper industry that is showing much growth. Americans are quite willing to buy the best quality.

Recycled paper requires quite a bit of energy and processing. You know they have to get the staples out if it is used for toilet tissue. Because the fiber is shorter the mills have to add acrylic polymers to keep everything together. Also it requires more paper to do the same job that virgin tissue does.

For each tree that is cut one or more gets planted in its place. No big deal.

57 posted on 12/17/2009 12:53:19 PM PST by oyez ( damnant quod non intelligunt)
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To: Manic_Episode

Ha-Ha!!!, very cheeky.


58 posted on 12/17/2009 12:54:03 PM PST by seoul62
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To: smokingfrog

The spousal unit bought some of that stuff once....it can only be described as nasty and like 600 grit sandpaper.


59 posted on 12/17/2009 12:54:16 PM PST by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: smokingfrog

How about we breed or GM modify Corn plants to have longer fibers that are usable in TP. There is a lot of cornstalks that could be used to make paper each year!!!

Corn, is there anything it cannot do?


60 posted on 12/17/2009 12:55:04 PM PST by GraceG
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