T.P. UPDATE

Daughter Hallie arrived yesterday and added a roll of toilet paper (Angel Soft) to my variety of test options. I asked if this was her new favorite. “No!” she answered emphatically. “And Nick hates it.” I can see why. It’s lightweight (probably 2-ply) and not as soft as you’d think angels would want. And then she went on to say that she isn’t onboard with the concept that we should choose a toilet paper just because it’s from recycled pulp. She wants a product which meets her personal standards.

As you know from the previous post, my concern about toilet paper was triggered by a newspaper article which implied that we’re wasting trees by converting them to toilet paper and that the big corporations don't care. Additional online research seemed to support this premise, but results can be skewed by the words you use in the search bar. I apparently wrote on misinformation, but I knew my friend Chris, married to Forester Dan, would eventually weigh in on this tissue issue. She commented as follows:

I asked Dan about this and he says here in the Northwest that paper products are made from the residuals of lumber making. He said in the south they raise crops of trees expressly for pulp; it's a crop, just like wheat or corn. I don't think you need to worry about which brand of TP you use as long as you are comfortable--both personally and price-wise.

Great to know that I’m not part of the problem if I buy that name brand I prefer. But I had more questions for Dan, and Chris sent the following response:

Grain crop is "heading out"

SFI [Sustainable Forest Initiative, the certification that appears on some packages] means areas that are logged are replanted (or regenerated naturally) within two years.  Dan used to fill in the paperwork for this as part of his job as silviculture manager.  Potlatch [our local pulp/paper mill] has shipped its pulp all over the country to other paper manufacturers in past years; Dan’s not certain that’s still true as he doesn’t work there anymore.  The pulp can also include trees that are too rotten from decay to be used for lumber or plywood.  It’s hard to say where the different companies manufacture their TP.  Potlatch used to make private label paper products, like Western Family, Albertsons, etc. 

Much, if not most, of what’s written is overblown.  It makes good copy. We don’t know what’s happening in other countries, but I would guess Europe is similar to the U.S.  As for third world countries, I think they probably wish they had toilet paper.  

Or, maybe we just can’t imagine managing without toilet paper.

And she added a final word on recycled paper:

A blackbird governs his realm from atop a pine tree

Everyone is always saying to recycle to “save a tree.”  It’s not to save a tree, it’s to save the landfills!  The recycled paper is mixed with the dried pulp and water in specified amounts to create different grades of paper.  Each year on the IFPC tours they tour Inland Paper in Spokane which makes newsprint at the rate of a mile of paper per minute! They have had to quit taking a lot of recycled paper because people don’t sort correctly and it’s not cost effective for them to weed out all the junk that’s included and haul it to the dump. 

And I think that’s a fair assessment of what’s happening with most recycling today.

Our TP comparison has already reached a consensus. "Angel Soft" was out before we even started, and “Green Forest,” the recycled paper, was pronounced terrible. But we think Signature (Safeway/Albertsons brand) “Our Softest” is really comparable to Charmin’s Ultra Soft, just like it says, and probably a better value. KW