Day 43 of our Green Year: The Dirty on Toilet Paper

Something every household uses is toilet paper. Often, several rolls are bought per week for a house of more than two people, and this presents a problem. When we buy 'normal' toilet paper, we are supporting pulp mills that pollute the environment and cut down trees.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of trees are cut down for the simple use of turning them into toilet paper. No offense, but it seems short-sighted to cut down the things we need for oxygen, and use them to wipe our butts with. Think of all the trees that could be saved if we all just switched to recycled toilet paper.

The importance of having recycled toilet paper is clear. When you use recycled toilet paper, you cut down no trees and you use what has already been used, after it has been reprocessed, again. There is a misconception out there that using recycled toilet paper is not as comfortable as other toilet paper. This is a myth. The truth is that it is just as good, if not better.

In the Baird household, we have decided to go with Seventh Generation recycled toilet paper and paper towels. We will not be buying toilet paper that is not recycled anymore, and by doing that we will save several trees from being cut down.

Do you know of a company that sells recycled toilet paper? Let us know!
Don't forget to send us photos of you doing green things (leave out ones that involve toilet paper...) and we will post them on our blog, just like our reader Maggie did with her patio garden! Send your photos to crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 14 of our Green Year: Washing Windows The Eco-Way

For our 14th day of our Green Year, we decided to take the suggestion of one of our readers, which was to wash your windows without using paper towels. It is hard to say how many trees are cut down each year to make paper towels, but it probably numbers in the millions. Like toilet paper, it is something we use briefly before we get rid of it and it is a huge waste. Most people do not recycle their paper towels and only a few buy recycled paper towel. Here are some statistics of what can be saved, simply by replacing your current paper towel and toilet paper with recycled paper from Seventh Generation.

• One million trees would be saved if every U.S. household replaced just one 250-count package of virgin fiber napkins with 100 percent recycled ones.
• 544,000 trees would be saved by replacing a 70-sheet roll of virgin fiber paper towels with recycled.
• 424,000 trees would be spared by replacing a 500-sheet roll of virgin fiber toilet paper with recycled.
• 170,000 trees would be saved by replacing one 175-count box of virgin fiber facial tissue recycled.

You can also use a very eco-friendly solution, which is to use a clean sock to clean the window as one of our readers suggested. It will work great, and when you use a mixture of vinegar and water it creates a wonderful clear window (the smell will go away if you open the windows). Windex, while it has improved greatly for the environment, is still laden with some chemicals.

Have more suggestions for us? Let us know so we can implement them in future blog posts!