Thursday, May 15, 2008

#223 - Pl-ass-tic Free

Buying Toilet Paper Without Plastic Packaging


This is the ninth change in my month-long pledge to give up plastics for Crunchy's Extreme Eco-Throwdown. And I got the idea from Fake Plastic Fish. Actually, I got most of my plastic-free ideas from her. :-) Thanks, Beth!

I switched to Seventh Generation's toilet paper last August because their tp made from 100% recycled paper, with 80% of it being post-consumer waste. Great stuff. Actually, rough stuff, but it gets the job done. My only beef with the paper was that it came wrapped in plastic packaging. Well no longer.

Taking Beth's advice, I hopped online to Amazon.com and got me a by-the-case toilet paper subscription. Cuz hey, I may have given up the Sunday Times, but I sure as hell ain't canceling my subscription to a wiped ass. Anyhow, the cases come packaged with 48 rolls, each roll individually wrapped in paper. No plastic to be found! Plus, with so many of them, they make great building blocks for the kids :-)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh burbarino...I hope you have better luck with the tp than I did the paper towels. Keep a lot of hand soap nearby just in case. Or gloves. I'm so glad you are using YOUR "skills" to test this one out.

EcoBurban said...

Inquring minds would like to know... How expensive did you find the TP subscription? More, less or the same as store bought??

And, I am hoping the second shipment arrives before the first one runs out... :o)

Green Bean said...

Ahh, I made this change. Thanks to Beth!

Anonymous said...

The 7th Gen is a little better than sand paper, I will admit. We weaned ourselves off the Quilted Northern slowly, alternating rolls until the QN was all gone. Now, I don't really remember what the other stuff was like. We're just used to the 7th Gen. Or maybe we've grown calluses on our butts?

But I have to say that the individually-wrapped rolls look nice lined up on the shelf behind the toilet. Nice design, plus they advertise to the world (because, of course, the world uses our bathroom) how eco-minded we are. And really, that's what's important, right?

:-)

Beth

Natalie said...

My question is this: What the heck were you wiping with before 7th Gen? Flannel? Down? Lord, 7th Gen tp isn't THAT bad!! :-)

I hadn't thought about ordering it to avoid the plastic wrap - mostly because the wrap is recyclable in my area. But, the less plastic the better. Is the paper wrapper recyclable?

Anonymous said...

I got a bidet! I is lovely and everything sparkles - I'm not going to tell you how I know though!!

The bidet toilet seat is unfortunately plastic so this wouldn't work for a monthly challenge.

I used to use 12 to 18 rolls of 7th Gen a month and since I put the bidet in use this past November I have used a grand total of 2!

Anonymous said...

My fiance use this brand and can purchase them individually at Whole Foods. Since they are single ply they last a really long time and honestly I don't even notice the difference in texture anymore.