Hoarding toilet paper during coronavirus doesn’t just deprive others – it’s killing the rainforests
- Did you know we cut down 27,000 trees every single day – some 15 per cent of global deforestation – just to make toilet paper?
- And yet there’s a renewable alternative that can be used to make loo roll: bamboo
We cut down 27,000 trees every single day – just to make toilet paper. Yes, you read that correctly. We treat loo roll as if it’s an infinite resource. We’re obsessed with having the “softest”, “strongest”, most “velvety” paper made from virgin pulp. All this to wipe after going to the toilet?
It’s incredible, really, that something as innocuous as toilet paper can cause such destruction to our planet. Aside from installing bidets into every single home and ditching loo roll altogether (which, let’s face it, ain’t going to happen) what can we do to prevent humanity flushing the world’s forests down the toilet? Because, good luck surviving in a world without trees.
The issue with tissue
In the US alone, the annual spend on toilet paper is US$6 billion. The environmental cost is equally eye-watering. To feed the demand, it takes 1.7 trillion litres of water, 250,000 tonnes of bleach and 15 million trees. Add the rest of the world’s TP consumption into the equation, and we’re looking at even scarier figures. Once you’ve digested the numbers, it’s perhaps not quite as astonishing to learn that 15 per cent of global deforestation is due to toilet paper.
And it barely needs stating that forests are essential to our survival; not only do they provide the air we breathe and a home to millions of species, but they also store vast amounts of carbon. In a nutshell, they protect us from the worst impacts of climate change.
The forests are paying the price
Three main regions across the globe provide the raw materials (i.e. trees) for the toilet paper industry: