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Boreal Forest

And Toilet Paper

This page is about the Canada's boreal forest and toilet paper.  It's about how soft do you really need your butt wipe to be.  You see, the softest papers on the market are made from the fibers found only in virgin timber.  This amounts to over ninety percent of all toilet paper sold.  The rest, well, it might not be quite as soft.

The rest, by the way, is good enough for much of the world, it's just not quite soft enough for the U.S.  You may want to rethink this one, cause there's not that much difference.  The other toilet paper we are talking about is made from recycled paper, a much greener choice, but maybe not quite as soft as the leading brands that fill most of the retailers shelves.

So here's the deal.  If every U.S. household replaced just one roll of premium paper with one roll of 100% recycled paper the wood saved would amount to about four hundred and twenty four thousand trees.  I'm sure that got your attention, but, you say you just can't wipe with that off brand stuff.

OK, here's another solution.  Buy only from companies that use trees harvested in an ecologically responsible way.  So how do you do that?  It's not enough anymore to trust the labels of companies claiming to be green.  Being green is the in thing and they all want to be green.  When they say they are green, but really aren't, that's called "greenwashing."

The Forest Stewardship Council is an organization that verifies green claims.  If they, are a similar group, can verify the product is produced in a sustainable way, that's what you need to look for.

Forest

So why are we making a fuss about some toilet paper.  The boreal forest is where much of this virgin lumber is coming from and it's being harvested in a rather unsustainable manor.  It's called clear-cutting, and it's being done all over our 1.4 billion acre boreal ecosystem.  This ecosystem is home to about a third of all North American song birds.  It's also home to caribou, bears, moose, lynx and many more animals.

There's another reason people are making such a fuss about cutting down all these trees to make toilet paper.  An area the size of Connecticut is cleared each day, and well, it does not all go to making toilet paper.  Just a small fraction actually, the rest goes to make the paper used in newspapers, promotional advertising and catalogs.  Regardless of the use, something is happening to our environment as a result of the these trees being clear-cut.

The boreal forests act as sponges for carbon dioxide.  Laying on the cold forest floor are many feet worth of leaves and fallen trees.  Carbon Dioxide is held in place so long as the forest floor stays cold.  When all the trees are cut, the floor heats up, when that happens carbon dioxide is released.

Changes are being made in the way the forests are harvested and in the way toilet paper is being produced.  The environmental groups are being heard and changes are taking place but your help is still needed.  Next time you are shopping for paper, think about the boreal forest.

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