The environmental costs of “luxury” toilet paper may exceed that of driving an SUV or eating fast food, reports the Guardian.

Toilet paper made from virgin forests accounts for 98 percent of the U.S. domestic market, with tissue made from recycled paper, which doesn’t “fluff up” as easily, trailing behind.

The United States is the world’s biggest consumer of paper, yet less than a third of all paper products used nationwide are recycled.

One scientist told the Guardian, “People just don’t understand that softness equals ecological destruction.”

In addition to causing deforestation, making toilet paper is water intensive and produces chemical pollution.

–Julia Hengst/Newsdesk.org

Source:

“American taste for soft toilet roll ‘worse than driving Hummers’”
The Guardian, February 26, 2009