To Wipe or Not To Wipe? That is the Question

You know the commercials: the lab puppy, the bear family in the woods and the lady with the giant robe. They're all trying to sell us the same thing -- toilet paper -- but they don't have to work that hard to get us to choose the plush, 2- and 3-ply paper. Nobody likes that hotel sandpaper stuff.

Well, according to an article in The Washington Post, you may need to get used to it. That is, if you want to stop harming the environment. Super soft toilet paper is typically made from chopping down the oldest trees. Toilet paper sheets are constructed of a web of wood fibers, and old trees have fibers that are longer than younger trees, which produce a smoother web. Recycled web fibers are shorter, and therefore, more coarse.

Toilet paper manufacturers have been working toward offering recycled options, but since consumers are still demanding softer TP, they're not phasing it out any time soon. For example, Quilted Northern Ultra Plush, the three-ply stuff, sold 24 million packages in the past year, according to the The Washington Post article.




Still, after fighting with Greenpeace, Kimberley-Clark promised that 40 percent of the fiber used in all of their tissue products will come from recycled paper or sustainable forests by 2011. However, whether companies go green or not, ultimately it's the consumer who decides what's best. Last year's Consumer Reports showed that even though consumers thought that brands like Seventh Generation had decent products, they gave their highest ratings to the three-ply Quilted Northern.

Who are you, er, behind? Would you sacrifice a little softness to help the planet?