Today, the toilet paper aisle is filled with products claiming to be more sustainable, from bamboo and recycled material to products with “forest-safe” labels.
According to the criteria of
But are they really better for the environment? And can we go paperless altogether?
If you’re in the Americas, the roll of paper you have in your bathroom right now might be a mix of trees from the southeastern U.S. and the Canadian boreal forest, or it might be eucalyptus grown in Brazil.
These sources present several environmental problems. Cutting down the planet’s old, intact forests and replacing native forests with large monoculture plantations is terrible for biodiversity.
It’s also bad for the climate because large, mature trees store more planet-warming carbon than young trees planted in their place.
The best way to reduce your environmental impact when using the bathroom is to reduce the amount of conventional toilet paper you use at home. If you’re looking to do that without changing your routine, your best bet may be toilet paper made from recycled material.
Recycled paper keeps trees in the ground and requires fewer resources to produce.
Based on anonymous data from paper mills across the U.S., the Environmental Paper Network, a nonprofit group, estimates that paper made from 100 percent recycled material requires about half the water and 37 percent less total energy than using virgin fiber from freshly cut trees.
And it produces about 70 percent less greenhouse gases.
Ashley Jordan, an analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said recycled paper has come a long way. So if you’ve tried it and been disappointed, you might want to give it a second chance.
But recycled paper isn’t a forever solution, said Ronalds Gonzalez, a professor at North Carolina State University and co-director of its Sustainable and Alternative Fibers Initiative. That’s because the supply of recycled material has dwindled as the use of certain paper products has declined.
Between 2014 and 2022, production of printing and writing paper in the U.S. fell by nearly 50 percent, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Bamboo toilet paper is a promising alternative. Because it’s a grass and not a tree, bamboo grows faster and takes up less land. And turning bamboo fibers into paper also requires less water than virgin wood (though more than recycled paper), Jordan said.
Much of the bamboo toilet paper on the market comes from China. An unpublished analysis by Gonzalez’s group suggests that the carbon footprint of this product may be higher than that of tree-based toilet paper from North America because of the fossil fuels used to produce and transport it.
Bidet toilet seats use a stream of water instead of multiple passes of paper. Afterwards, you dry yourself with a moderate amount of toilet paper or a cloth towel. But what about the bidet’s water consumption?
Bidets remain a winning option because the toilet paper manufacturing process uses more water than most people realize, Jordan said.
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