In speaking about his early incarnations as a non-animal eater, Papa Vegetarian Jonathan Safran Foer recounts numerous clandestine trysts with cheap hamburgers. As a green lifestyle advocate, I too have a secret shame. As often and earnest as I try, I cannot make my household fully embrace eco-friendly toilet paper.
While we cast off our Italian linens in favor of organic cotton, plastic bottles for filter-filled reusable containers and even silver polish for a four-hour ritualistic cleansing worthy of a Salem trial, toilet paper remains the one major lifestyle product for which I can't make an eco-friendly option regularly stick. It's my secret shame, my late-night purchase; and here is my confession.
Consider this site a safe place (let's try!) to air your ungreen laundry. In your otherwise green home, what eco-friendly practice or product is your household guilty of not yet fully embracing?
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Laurie---Get thee to a jan/san house. They will carry several lines of "green" tissue for you to choose from. Eco-Soft by Wausau Paper is one brand (and my favorite). Some brands are only so-so, but most manufacturers have really upped their products and they are better than grocery store tissue and eco-friendly, too. Be prepared to buy a case of tissue though---about 90 rolls. But it is sooo worth the money.
Oh hell, too many to mention here. Long showers, disgusting overuse of paper towels, the use of cedar litter for our cats. I made a "one change per month" pledge a few years ago. The changes were good and easy to make; we now compost, use only cotton totes and travel mugs, etc etc. But the above sins of mine are huge sticking points.
Qtips. I'm a chronic ear cleaner. I realize that we're not event really supposed to clean deep in our ears. I CAN.NOT. STOP. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night - not to pee or get water - but to clean my ears.
Sometimes I look at my qtips+feel a little ashamed. Srsly.
Why are you "casting off" perfectly good Italian linens?
Let the fancy toilet paper go. Be grateful that you allow yourself toilet paper at all. Anytime husband starts eyeing the virgin brands I start talking about rags and water. And I mean it.
If cloth diapering taught me anything it was that toilet paper is the worst invention of modern civilization. Wasteful and works poorly. I am still scratching my head to figure out the idea of family cloth started to make sense to me...
Seventh Generation has an acceptable 2-ply -- I refuse to use anything 1-ply. I make up for it in other paper-saving ways.
i fail to see how using 1-ply tp saves paper...there's a set amount of absorbancy needed to wipe effectively, so you can either use few sheets of the cushy stuff or many sheets of the crummy stuff. or go cloth, as judiau mentioned.
Toilet paper is not hygienic. Many people in the world wash with water or water and soap after "using the restroom." There are three solutions with that in mind: install a bidet, attach a bidet sprayer to your toilet (looks like the hose attached to your kitchen sink), or use a cup of water or a $3 peri/lavette/irrigation bottle). The water used to wash oneself is minimal and once you switch to washing, I swear you'll never want to use tp again.