Day Fifty-Eight - A$$wipe

Replacing My Charmin with Recycled Toilet Paper

OK, before you all think I'm disgusting, you need to know that "recycled toilet paper" is simply made from post-consumer content (like office paper and such) and is NOT made from reused toilet paper, as the name suggests. That would be gross.

I chose to go with Seventh Generation brand tp, as I've purchased some of their products in the past and have been happy with the results. However, if you want to do your own research, you can get the straight poop on tp and other paper products by reading this article published by the National Resources Defense Council.

Here are some factoids that I got straight from my new tp's packaging and Lord knows they wouldn't be biased.

If every household in the US replaced just one 4-pack of 400 sheet virgin fiber tp with 100% recycled tp, we could save:

• 1,450,000 trees
• 3.7 million cubic feet of landfill space
• 523 million gallons of water
• 89,000 pounds of chlorinated pollution.

My new, fancy-ass (pun intended) tp is made from 100% recycled paper with 80% post-consumer materials. It is whitened without the use of chlorine bleach. It is free of dyes, inks and fragrances. It is safe for septic systems and ideal for low-flow toilets. Even the plastic packaging is made from #2 HDPE recyclable plastic (ok, why the hell don't they just wrap it in paper like the way tp used to be sold?). All in all, it is a very environmentally-friendly product.

Unfortunately, it has the texture of a #12 grit sanding block. Just kidding, actually, it's not all that bad. It's definitely not as soft as my old Charmin, but is better than the crunchy stuff they put in the bathrooms in public schools and state parks. It's usable and after all folks, let's remember what I'm using it for. It's not to snuggle up with at night or caress across my face, it's to remove $h!t from my a$s. My fingers may notice a difference, but I doubt my butt will.

Savings:

I'm not sure exactly how many forests I'm saving, but I like that I'm going from 0% recycled content to 100% and going from chlorine bleached to a non-chlorine whitening process -- these are HUGE improvements. I also like the fact that I can recycle the packaging, although for all I know I could recycle the Charmin plastic too but, unfortunately, it doesn't have a plastic code or number on it, so I don't know for sure.

Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5

The comparison information in the aforementioned article makes selecting a product simple. You could even demo a couple different brands to find the one you like the best. Yup, this switch was as easy as falling off a log, or, in this case, pinching one off.