Trending
You never appreciate what you have until it's gone.
Climate change isn't just about smokestacks and tail pipes, or oil wells and coal mines. It's also about our forests, which have been regulating the climate for millions of years.
The demands of the toilet paper industry cause the clearcutting of one million acres of boreal forest each year (bye-bye, carbon sinks) -- leading Canada to rank third globally, behind Russia and Brazil, in terms of global intact forest loss--in part to produce pulp that U.S. tissue makers use for the ultimate disposable product: toilet paper.
As an unexpected side effect of COVID-19, toilet paper emerged as one of the most sought-after products in America. The toilet paper shortage underscored the urgency of creating a more sustainable, resilient means of production of tissue products.
Many major toilet paper brands sold in the United States come in part from one of the most climate-critical ecosystems on the planet: the Canadian boreal forest. This great northern forest is the most carbon-dense, intact forest left on the planet, locking up in its soils and trees twice as much carbon as the world's oil reserves. Yet, despite the fact that we have only a matter of years left to act to avoid catastrophic climate change, tissue companies are continuing to drive a tree-to-toilet pipeline that is flushing away this essential climate ally.
Toilet paper use contributes to climate change mainly through the logging of ancient, carbon-dense forests, like the Canadian boreal forest, for virgin wood fiber, which releases stored carbon and harms ecosystems. Logging these forests destroys habitats, releases vast amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere, and compromises their ability to absorb CO2, intensifying climate change.
Each year, the logging industry in Canada degrades over a million acres of this climate-critical forest, in large part to feed U.S. demand for toilet paper. While Canada has a global reputation as an environmental steward, in recent years, Canada ranked third globally in its rate of intact forest loss with logging the leading driver of that loss. Ninety percent of this logging is in the form of clearcutting, a machinery-intensive practice which removes nearly all the trees in an area, and leaves behind a barren landscape.
The trouble is, U.S. brands are designed to account for a level of snobbery around what Americans use to wipe their bottoms. The ratios of hard- to soft-wood pulp are slightly different in the U.S. than elsewhere, with around 30% comprising the more expensive softwood pulp.
It is clear that the impacts of manufacturing single-use tissue products from forest fiber are not only severe but also avoidable. Companies know that there are more responsible ways to create tissue products than using forest fiber - namely, using recycled materials and responsibly sourced alternative fibers - and many have already embraced these solutions in their product lines. However, the largest, most powerful tissue companies -- Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, and Georgia-Pacific -- have failed to adopt these more sustainable sourcing practices. They remain instead entrenched in a destructive "tree-to-toilet pipeline" model that continues to come at an extreme cost to Indigenous communities, the climate, threatened species, and forests like the boreal in Canada.
To mitigate this impact, consumers can switch to toilet paper made from recycled materials or fast-growing bamboo, and can support companies that use sustainable practices.
Bamboo is a fast-growing, renewable resource that requires less land than trees and can be harvested multiple times. However, it’s important to choose brands that ensure the bamboo is grown and harvested sustainably, as some bamboo paper products still have high carbon footprints due to production and shipping. Look for certifications like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label to ensure the product is responsibly sourced.
There are also more everyday changes you could make: buying more sustainable options, including tissue made with recycled content, and simply using less where you can. In fact, 70% of the world's population uses water instead of dry toilet paper for post-toilet hygiene. Look up the word "BIDET."
With a greater number of consumers prioritizing sustainability in their buying habits, more brands are finally offering sustainable toilet tissue products. Solutions for more sustainable toilet paper do exist. Americans can and should do better.
Linda Eve Seth, SLP, M.Ed., is a mother, grandmother, concerned citizen and member of MOVCA.