Wiped out: America's love of luxury toilet paper is destroying Canadian forests - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/01/canada-boreal-forest-toilet-paper-us-climate-change-impact-report We’re all becoming more aware about the damage single-use plastics and fast fashion has on the environment. Yet there is one product we all throw away every single day that, so far, has not been a major part of conversations about sustainability: toilet paper. The boreal forest covers almost 60% of Canada and is home to 600 indigenous communities. Its huge size means it can absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the equivalent to the annual emissions of 24m cars each year. The report found that major brands’ refusal to switch to sustainable materials in toilet paper is having a devastating impact on forests and climate. About 28m acres of Canadian boreal forest is cut down each year, an area the size of Pennsylvania. Virgin pulp, the key ingredient in toilet paper, accounted for 23% of Canada’s forest product exports. Americans are particularly to blame for this crisis. They make up just over 4% of the world’s population, yet account for more than 20% of global tissue consumption. The average four-person household in the US uses over 100lbs of toilet paper a year.

That sounds tragic but is there truly a price so high that any red-blooded American would not pay it to avoid being turned gay by using a bidet?

Jesus, it feels like every faucet of life causes the destruction of the entire planet. Can't even wipe your ass without fucking it all up.

Hard to not have a defeatist attitude considering that. Seems like environmental destruction is enevitable, its just a matter of how fast or slow we bring it about.

Just use water, geez.

It's more of a matter of finding ways to recycle and maximizing it. Though in this particular subject, that is kind of impossible. However, as the son of a sewage plant employee, I can say that this toilet paper is not just casually destroyed and never returned to the environment. It gets dissolved into the sewage, which plants like the one my father works at processes into clean fertilizer. It is then injected into local farmland that produces fresh food for the region. So it's being returned to the soil to help grow more vegetation, just not trees that were cut down to produce it.

You know you can still use both, right? It still would severly reduce it...

There are far too many people alive for the planet to sustain.

The article highlights that the US's "luxury" fixation is part of the problem, namely that we americans keep preferring multi-ply soft tissues of paper compared to simple one-plys or whatever. I kinda get that concern, and I'm willing to make the sacrifice. But in recent times my ass is getting stubbornly sensitive, and dry one-ply rolls rather unpleasant compared to the two-plys at home. So that's fun.

Personally, I never liked the soft stuff. I feel as if I am just smearing shit all over my ass instead of cleaning myself. Give me that rough sandpaper every time.

This planet could sustain so many more people than we have now. It's just that humanity is extremely inefficient with its resources and wasteful. And for the past two centuries, whenever there was want, people would ramp up production instead of creating resource efficiency.

Bidets need to become the standard in America. Wiping your ass with flimsy paper is disgusting. Idk how people are still okay with this

The big issue is the hard to find middle ground between literally wiping your ass with a paper blanket vs the mostly-transparent and simultaniously more abrasive than the most hardcore sandpapers on the market shit that you find in every public/office bathroom.

Uh, I think the problem with the bidet is that nobody wants to spend whatever ammount of time to take a large shit, and then spend an even bigger time essentialy taking a shower to simply wipe their ass. Like, here in Portugal, a bidet is as standard in a bathroom as a Beretta or a Glock is a standard issue 9MM handgun to a police officer, but we still don't use them any time after taking a shit.

They sell simple ones for like $40 you install into the toilet with some basic water controls. Don't need to make a huge deal out of it if you get the right thing

that's because there is currently no penalty for exploiting nature, even mine remediation laws can be defeated by bankruptcy court.

This was posted on reddit and quickly torn apart as sensationalism. https://i.imgur.com/Jux9XvH.png Along with multiple other comments. Not defending Big TP or anything but it's mostly a clickbait article.

They do? Like, sprinkler stuff? Kind of weird, but that does make the whole deal a bit different.

bidet is life bidet is clean bidet is the true way to clean that rump

It’s amazing how people look down on bidets

How tall are bidets where you come from?

Every part of the world consumes unsustainable resources, actually. Some worse than others, but this isn't something that any country is innocent of.

Honestly, I had switched to one-ply completely on accident as I was just looking for some cheap toiler paper one day. I discovered that not only does it clean as well as two-ply, but it tends to actually fray less and lasts longer than even the "MEGA ROLLS" that other TP companies that sell two-ply have. Seriously. A 12 roll one-ply set will last about 2 months in my house, while a 12 roll two-ply set won't maybe last even 3 weeks. I'd actually install a bidet if it was fully under my control, but alas, it isn't, and I'm sure the others in my household don't want water shooting up their ass.

I bought a 36-pack of One Ply TP a long time ago. A LONG TIME

This is why we need the three seashells

Sorry guys this one was probably my fault.

Timber Farming needs to be more common through the world. I was about to say "This is getting ridiculous" but in fact it has been ridiculous for the past fifty years.

Just use a bidet instead maybe?

How do cleaning products like bleach factor into this? All this is rather fascinating.

Not to disagree that this could be bullshit but a few reddit posts are not a good source, literally anyone can start with "Forester here," and then just make up facts that sound legitimate.