A Rough Choice
Posted at 5:30 AM on October 26, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(21 Comments)
Last week's discussion about our favorite parodies got me thinking about toilet paper.
There's a battle going on in the biffy. Environmentalists say America's love of soft toilet paper is wasteful of old growth forests because the softer paper requires longer wood fibers - the kind you can only get directly from a tree. Recycled fibers are shorter and are apparently not fluffy enough to satisfy - think European toilet paper.
The toilet paper industry answers with a marketing conundrum - you have to give the people what they want or your competitor will do it instead. And Americans like comfort.
So it comes down to the consumer - which toilet paper will you buy? Which potty path will you walk? Every paper is advertised for softness now, with plush, cushy adjectives flowing across each wrapper. The pressure over such a delicate choice is overwhelming and I admit to standing in the supermarket aisle before the rows and flows of angel hair utterly incapable of making up my mind. And yet I know the fate of the world relies on my decision. As Robert Frost might have said, had he been a newsroom poet ...
Two rolls diverged in their use of wood
And knowing I should not unravel both
And be in The Sierra Club; long I stood
And looked at one as close as I could
To see it's source in the old wood growth.Then took the Quilted - it's just as plump
And having perhaps the softer name,
To this hasty conclusion I did jump
That if both were to caress the rump
One would wear really about the same,For both rolls boasted they were fair
In sheets so white with fulsome fluff
Oh! Could I just them both compare!
Yet seeing how tear leads on to tear
I doubted I should use the lesser stuff.And so the Quilted did I buy
Though I was chafed by the expense
Two rolls diverged in their use of wood and I,
I chose the one with one less ply
And that has made a load of difference.
Do you consider environmental factors when buying mundane items?
Comments (21)
we use corncobs, Sears catalog pages, or basswood leaves up here, Dale.
be careful - the Duluth News Tribune ran a story on toilet paper (huge, first page thing) and my 90 year old mom canceled her subscription.
thanks for the funny, wonderful poetry.
good morning, All!
Your are ahead of me, Dale, on paying attention to the toilet paper choices. I do pay attention to the light bulb choices and have bought some compact florescent bulbs that use less electricity. I think most of us have information about these bulbs which cost a little more, but last longer than regular bulbs.
It would seem like an easy choices to just put in all CFL bulbs, but I don't like the light quality they give, so I don't always use them in some places where I want bright light. Then there is even more advanced energy efficent bulbs like LEDs to consider.
It seems I can't take the light bulb choices lightly, just you have a rough choice to make on buying toilet paper , Dale.
Greetings! Such a funny poem, Dale -- great stuff. I usually do take environmental considerations in mind when buying. I had heard about the American toilet paper problem recently -- although I haven't changed my buying habits yet.
The backlash from the boys would be frightening -- so I'm still hesitating to take the big step toward un-soft toilet paper. All the household cleaners and personal items I purchase are natural and environmentally safe. Much as I would love to buy all organic cotton, hemp, fair trade, etc., for clothes, the price differential is still too great for me ... but I do my best.
Yes, I try to consider the environment when I spend money on everyday items. :-)
Well, anyway, it's Monday. Thanks the little bit of laughter, Dale, at the onset of another Monday.
About a year ago I bought a dozen full spectrum CFLs at Mercola.com. Most are still in use and the light is excellent -- although those were rather expensive and don't fit all light fixtures (like covered hallway lights). But they were well worth the price for the full spectrum lighting and other savings.
Oy, Dale, the poem! It's so funny you should delve into this topic. We read perhaps the same article a couple of weeks ago -- Old Growth Forests?? Who knew? I had previously decided to pamper myself, but now I'm ready to give it up, at least some of the time.
That's how I deal with this stuff sometimes; like Jim light bulbs, I compromise. I figure it we all used only half as much of the softest stuff, it would help. I keep reusable bags in the car, and even sometimes remember to take them into the store with me.
We recently noticed that one TP company (maybe more) has started making slightly SHORTER rolls. Sneaky.
I do buy toilet paper made from recycled paper - it is a little rougher on the rump, but if you try a few brands, it is possible to find one that is less scratchy. A little. Started with the recycled stuff in earnest when Daughter was in diapers and we found disposables that at least weren't chlorine bleached (can't really go recycled there, though) - figured if I was putting all those diapers into the waste stream, I'd better make up for it somewhere (cloth not being a good option since we were doing daycare).
I'm with Jim though on the CFLs - I can only bring myself to use them selectively as I don't like the light quality and color, even the so-called "color corrected" bulbs. I'll have to reduce my environmental impact elsewhere, I guess with my TP choices, cleaning products, food, and general consumption...
Thanks, Joanne, for the information on getting full spectrum CFL bulbs.
I don't think I will try those choices for alternatives to toilet paper that Barb mentioned. Is that really what you use, Barb??? I'll have go Dale's route, and check out the options in the grocery stores.
It's the mundane things that add up, including TP and light bulbs, so we do need to pay attention. My wife handles the TP purchasing, and to her credit often gets the non-quilted type.
I do handle the light bulb side of things, and have used CFLs for many years in the fixtures and lamps that get used the most, using bulbs with the similar type of 'warm' light and regular bulbs.
thanks dale for bringing to light a new area to make a responsible choice, thats all we can do is be aware of the options. charmin ultra soft is gone from my life forever. i hated the scratchy stuff but now its the only way to go. lifes decisions have to come from somewhere. priortization r us. anna save me a couple of trounds of choices. which are the better and the ones to steer away from. if i can avoid splinters the first couple of rolls that would help my selling this porgram to the munchkins, but then again what choice do they have? kind of got em where you want them at tha point. perfect for control freaks. another week or so of beautifully colored leaves as an option... zero impact.
Sorry, meant '...similar type of 'warm' light AS regular bulbs.'
Happy 18th anniversary to my wife - also anniversay of game 6 of the 1991 World Series in which Kirby Puckett hit the grand slam home run. A memorable and fun day it was.
Oh, I forgot to say that, having won a pair of tickets here, I went to the Klezmatics concert on Saturday night, which had to have been one of the top 5 performances I've seen! Next time they visit the Twin Cities, I'll go, even if I have to pay! Thanks, Radio Heartland!
well, Jim, i was kidding. but have used all that i mentioned a long, long time ago. some of my relatives didn't get indoor plumbing (to (as a visitor) my delight) until about 50 years ago. and then one always had the option of outside and those big leaves (like basswood) were nice. poison ivy - not nice. in the outhouse, one had the convenience of the tissue (old catalogs) being reading material in the interim....
out here we have a septic system that requires "septic safe" tissue. the next best thing to nothing at all.
Been thinking... other mundane changes I've been trying to make are around throw-away plastic -- I've started using glass jars etc. for leftovers and carrying water, and take my own cup to Caribou. Not all the way there yet, certainly, but it drives me wild to think of all the plastic in the landfills and the Pacific.
Great poem today, in the running for your best ever.
Cloth grocery bags? Absolutely. And it's amazing how often you're offered one at some event or other.
CFL? A source of frequent "discussion" between my lovely bride and I. I like that you can use brighter lights in the same fixtures. She doesn't like the colors. There are times colorblindness has its advantages.
Cloth diapers? In my distant past, fortunately.
TP? Not yet. I think that would be a discussion to rival the compact fluorescents.
I am, however, surprised that no one's brought up buying local products (particularly food)to put in those cloth bags when possible. That's a win all around.
morning, dale and blog community---
i do take the environment into consideration for mundane purposes---
will have to try some varieties of TP to see which "better" ones my sensitive skin can handle :-)
i buy recycled paper everything else, have gone back to using cloth napkins, and also remember the cloth grocery bags sometimes.
i buy almost all my clothes at thrift stores, so they are recycled...
strange there is not sustainable forestry for TP--crazy to cut old growth forests for anything these days, when there are options for tree farming, fast-growth species, etc....
Is there nothing in this great nation that provides comfort or superficial beauty that is harmless? I'll quit tanning, forgo implants, heck, I'll even stop taking drugs, but PLEASE don't say I have to buy the scratchy stuff. Truth be told, where I work, all employed are subjected daily to uncomfortable tissue, not because of its wood conserving nature, but because its kind came in with the lowest bid. And therein likes the reprehensible rough rub.
I very much agree with Don, choose the locally produced food when it is available and other locally produced items.
Yes about the local foods! There's a fairly new place in S. Mpls, sort of an indoor farmers market, called Traditional Foods Minnesota. They are "a REAL FOOD WAREHOUSE where members of our BUYING CLUB can select from a wide variety of meats, cheeses, milk, eggs, poultry, fish and amazing dry goods!"... like honey, syrups, soaps. And kombucha, kimchee and saurkraut... (If Barb in Blackhoof and Cynthia in Mahtowa lived close, their foods might be there.)
I've started volunteering there; so far they're open just Tu-Th-Sat. http://web.me.com/willwinter/traditionalfoodsmn.mac.com/Welcome.html
Tim -
I don't know if it's appropriate to respond on the blog with brands, but I will say that more expensive does not equate with less scratchy (at my local grocer the $1.49 4-pack of "green" TP is better than the "generational" more expensive brand...and the store brand at WF is pretty good).
That said, I have yet to find a good recycled content facial tissue that isn't scratchy.
Barbara in Robbinsdale -- that's like only blocks from my house and I've never heard of it before. I'm going to check it out; and I'll ask if you're there! (but may not identify myself because I'm a shy person.)
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