Environmental impact of toilet paper:
36 Billion rolls of toilet paper are used in the USA each year. This equates to 15 million trees being cut down – an area the size of Singapore... and it's growing. It takes 20 litres of water to produce one 100% recycled roll of toilet paper.
And 35 litres of water to produce one normal roll of toilet paper. 36 billion rolls x 20 litres = 720 Billion litres of water, a year to make toilet paper just in the USA. That's the equivalent of around 288 000 Olympic size swimming pools.
Again, all to wipe our bums. Then there are the terra-watts of electricity and hundreds of tonnes of chlorine also used in the process. Thinking about wet wipes? They're just as bad. In 2017, wet wipes made up more than 90% of the material causing sewer blockages. While Water UK states that no wet wipes are flushable, as most “flushable” wet wipes contain microplastics and even the natural ones can take six months to biodegrade in compost.
Economic impact:
If, on average, a house of four people uses around 100 sheets of toilet paper per day,
and on average 100 sheets of good toilet paper costs around 32p. By using a bum gun, this could save a household of four around £116.80 a year.
Social impact:
If you think you are clean after using toilet paper, may I ask... If you got some poo on your cheek and wiped it off with toilet paper would your cheek be clean? Most would say, not until washed with water at the very least. So why do we treat our rear cheeks differently?
Therefore are all of the processes of creating toilet paper unnecessary when we don't even complete the task of cleaning ourselves?
We have been doing it backward:
We poo in water and clean ourselves with the woods, when we should,
poo in the woods and clean ourselves with water!
Let's open up the conversation about a subject that has been locked behind closed doors for too long!
Have a look at other posts in the Blog Roll for more info on this topic...
Toilet paper:
We cut down forests filled with life,
to harvest trees that give us oxygen,
using vast amounts of energy, water, and chemicals,
to process wood into soft white “leaves” of paper,
that we use once, to wipe our waste on,
which still leaves our rear end dirty!
When all you need is a spray!
