The Softer the Toilet Paper, the Older the Tree

toilet paper deforestation

Forests. Good for humans, good for animals, good for the planet. Intact, pristine forests are carbon sequestration powerhouses and home to thousands of diverse species. They’ve also been home to Indigenous communities for centuries. So yeah, they’re a pretty big deal.

Ultra-soft toilet paper. Nice for your bum. Not so nice for the planet. What makes it so soft? Trees from old-growth forests. In fact, the toilet paper industry has been sending old-growth trees straight to toilets around the world for years.

And the majority of tree-based tissue products in American households come from northern Canada’s boreal forest.1 This outdated method results in a “tree-to-toilet pipeline,” with centuries-old trees being flushed away forever. 

The impacts on Indigenous communities, wildlife, our health, and the climate are devastating. 

Let’s take a look at the issue with old-growth tissue. 

Canada’s Boreal: Vital to Addressing Climate Change

The boreal forest is situated just below the Arctic Circle and spans 1 billion acres across Scandinavia, Russia, China, Alaska, and Canada.1 This ring of green around the northern edge of our planet is home to boreal caribou, martens, lynx, moose, and other forest-dwelling creatures who rely on the pristine forests for survival. It’s also a nesting ground for over a billion migratory birds that fly across North American skies.

 

deer in the woods surrounded by trees

 

The boreal is the largest carbon-dense forest on earth. This is due in large part to half a million square miles of wetlands spanning the forest. Wetlands not only provide a home for migratory birds and other wild animals, but they also store an enormous amount of carbon. The trees, soils, and wetlands of the boreal together store about 230 billion tons of carbon dioxide— that’s about 12% of the world’s carbon stores.1

Indigenous communities have also called these forests home for centuries.2 Over 600 Indigenous communities live in the Canadian Boreal. They have generations of knowledge and wisdom about living with and managing these diverse forests. Including Indigenous people in land management and use planning creates sustainable local economies and contributes to the protection and preservation of Canada’s boreal forest.

The Problem: Flushing Our Forests Down the Toilet

Toilet paper is a relatively recent addition to American homes. Prior to the 1850s, a variety of natural materials like moss, snow, and corn cobs were more common. Even old issues of the Farmer’s Almanac were used. (Ouch). Toilet paper was first invented in 1857, but it took a decade or so to really take off. Today, Americans make up just 4% of the world’s population but consume 20% of toilet tissue produced.1

And where does that tissue come from? Canada’s old-growth boreal forest. Between 1996 and 2015 more than 28 million acres of forest were cut down for toilet paper. That’s an area roughly the size of Ohio. The most common method of tree removal is clearcutting. Basically, this is where an entire stand of trees is completely razed, without regard for soil erosion, forest health, or the animal life that depends on the trees for survival. 

 

a forest with clearcut in the foreground

 

Continued clearcutting of Canada’s boreal will release even more carbon into the atmosphere with devastating effects on climate change. One acre of forest sequesters about 2 tons of carbon dioxide a year, or about two cars’ worth of yearly emissions. But that’s just an estimate. And doesn’t take into account the loss of the wetlands, the loss of biodiversity, and the loss of a home for Indigenous communities.

So why are companies still using old-growth trees for toilet paper? It has to do with softness.

An Old Tree Makes the Softest TP 

Two kinds of trees are used to make traditional toilet paper — hardwood and softwood. Hardwood trees are deciduous trees, like oaks and maples. Softwood trees are evergreens like spruce and Douglas fir. As you might guess, softwood trees give toilet paper its softness. The long fibers also help strengthen the tissue.

After clearcutting, the trees are sent to a pulp mill. They’re mashed up into what’s called virgin pulp (virgin meaning directly from trees without any recycled material). This process uses massive amounts of energy, water, and chemicals. The pulp is then transformed into tissue products and shipped around the world for distribution.

It takes time for softwood trees to develop those long fibers. How long? Spruce trees reach old-growth status in just over a hundred years. And many in the boreal forest are over 300 years old.3 300 years of growth and survival, just to be flushed down the toilet.

And using these old-growth trees for the softest toilet paper creates a massive carbon footprint — about three times as much as alternative pulps. 

As if that weren’t bad enough, virgin pulp is made with a toxic chemical mixture that’s bad for humans and bad for the environment.

  

the tree to toilet pipeline

 

Chemicals Help Make Toilet Paper Soft

Using old-growth wood for toilet paper doesn’t fully soften the tissue for consumer tastes. The pulp must be bleached to further whiten, soften, and strengthen the final product. Elemental chlorine is a human-made chemical that produces dioxins when used to bleach tissue products. 

Dioxins leach into the air and groundwater and are harmful to humans, animals, and the environment. Not good. Manufacturers, fortunately, moved away from elemental chlorine in the 1990s. 

These days there are three methods used to soften toilet paper:

  1. Elemental chlorine-free (ECF): less toxic than elemental chlorine but still emits elemental chlorine gas as a by-product into the air. The gas poses a risk to humans, fish, and other animals. Most if not all virgin toilet paper manufacturers use this process.
  2. Processed chlorine-free (PCF): Uses alternatives to chlorine, mainly oxygen, ozone, and hydrogen peroxide. This method is used for most recycled toilet paper. It’s important to note that the paper and wood byproducts used for recycled tissue have already been through the ECF bleaching process and typically retain some of those chemicals in their fibers.
  3. Totally chlorine-free (TCF): similar to PCF as hydrogen peroxide and ozone are the most common chemicals used for this process. But because the product used for pulp hasn’t been bleached, it’s 100% free of chlorine. Cloud Paper uses TCF to make our tree-free toilet paper soft and strong.

Virgin pulp processing creates other air pollutants like formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory issues and possibly even cancer. The process also emits sulfur dioxide which can cause smog, acid rain, and respiratory problems in humans and animals.

So who’s cutting down old-growth trees to make soft toilet tissue?

North America’s largest producers of toilet tissue all use virgin pulp:

Proctor & Gamble, Georgia-Pacific, and  Kimberly-Clark

Their brands include Charmin, Angel Soft, Cottonelle, Brawny, Bounty, Kleenex, Quilted Northern, and Viva. And all of them received an F on the National Resources Defense Council’s sustainability scorecard.4 These brands also make the softest toilet papers on the market. 

Wipe Out Deforestation With Tree-Free TP

Want to help save the boreal forest? Good! We do too. 

Here are four steps we can all take to help end deforestation:

  1. Buy recycled toilet paper or toilet paper made from alternative raw materials, such as bamboo and wheat straw. Bamboo is a fast-growing, sustainable resource that regenerates in just three years. And you don’t have to give up your soft tissue when you buy bamboo!
  2. Buy tissue products that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). FSC certification ensures that the products come from responsibly managed forests. Bamboo tissue products should also have this certification to prevent deforestation and monoculture where bamboo is grown. Don’t worry— Cloud Paper bamboo comes from FSC-certified farms!
  3. Reduce your use of tissue products. Encourage your family to use fewer squares per wipe. Try cloth napkins instead of paper. Tissue products are important in our lives, but over-reliance has created an unsustainable demand.
  4. Beware of the industry-led Sustainable Forestry Initiative. SFI is greenwashing at its worst. They provide no restrictions on cutting down old-growth forests and they allow the conversion of old-growth forests into monocultures. They don’t protect threatened and endangered species, nor do they include Indigenous cultures in land management decisions.

A few small steps today can help save our old growth forests for generations. 

Want to know more about our tree-saving mission? Follow us on Instagram for the latest tips and updates! 

 

Resources:

  1. https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/issue-tissue-how-americans-are-flushing-forests-down-toilet-report.pdf
  2. https://www.greenpeace.org/international/publication/7374/wiping-away-the-boreal/#:~:text=Human%20activities%20are%20currently%20driving,and%20degradation%20of%20natural%20habitat
  3. https://www.nrdc.org/experts/shelley-vinyard/issue-tissue-20?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=Boreal