The Softer the Toilet Paper, the Older the Tree

by Sarah Breeze March 5, 2021

toilet paper deforestation

Key Takeaways

Old-growth forests are being cut for toilet paper, especially in Canada’s carbon-dense boreal region.
Clearcutting harms biodiversity, Indigenous lands, and climate resilience, with irreversible long-term effects.
Soft toilet paper often means older trees, as longer fibers provide both softness and strength.
Virgin pulp production involves toxic chemicals like chlorine gas and formaldehyde.
Tree-free options like bamboo and TCF processing reduce deforestation without sacrificing softness.

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, forests are 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. The toilet paper industry has been sending old-growth trees straight to toilets around the world for years.

And most tree-based tissue products in American households come from northern Canada’s boreal forest. This outdated method results in a “tree-to-toilet pipeline,” with folks flushing away centuries-old trees forever.

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

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

Why Canada’s Boreal Forest Is Key to Wildlife, Climate and Culture

The boreal forest sits just below the Arctic Circle and spans over 1 billion acres across Scandinavia, Russia, China, Alaska and Canada.

This ring of green around our planet’s northern edge is home to boreal caribou, martens, lynx, moose and other forest-dwellers. They all rely on the pristine forests for survival. It’s also a nesting ground for more than 1 billion migratory birds that fly across North American skies.

deer in the woods surrounded by trees

The boreal is also the largest carbon-dense forest on earth. This is due in large part to 1.19 million square kilometers of wetlands spanning the forest.

Wetlands not only provide homes for migratory birds and other wild animals but also store enormous amounts of carbon. Canada’s boreal forest stores about 12% of Earth’s land-based carbon. That's almost 307 billion tons of carbon mostly locked in soils, peatlands and wetlands.

Indigenous communities have also called these forests home for centuries. More than 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 use management and planning creates sustainable local economies. This simple but powerful move contributes to the protection and preservation of Canada’s boreal forest.

How Toilet Paper Fuels Old-Growth Deforestation

Toilet paper is a relatively recent addition to American homes. Before the 1850s, a variety of materials like moss, snow and corn cobs were more common. People even used old issues of the Farmer’s Almanac (ouch).

Joseph Gayetty invented our modern concept of toilet paper in 1857, but it took a while to really take off. Today, Americans make up just over 4% of the world’s population but consume 20% of its toilet tissue.

And where does that tissue come from? Canada’s old-growth boreal forest. Between 1996 and 2015, manufacturers cut more than 28 million acres of forest for toilet paper. That’s an area roughly the size of Ohio.

Clearcutting is the most common method of tree removal. Basically, this is where people completely raze an entire stand of trees. This happens 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

What Clearcutting Means for the Climate and Biodiversity

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 CO2 a year, or about two cars’ worth of yearly emissions. That’s just an estimate. And it doesn’t take the stakes into account:

Loss of the wetlands
Loss of biodiversity
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.

How Virgin Pulp Makes Toilet Paper Soft at a Steep Cost

Manufacturers use two kinds of trees 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.

How Virgin Pulp Toilet Paper Is Made and Why It’s a Problem

After clearcutting, manufacturers send the trees to a pulp mill. Then, they’re mashed up into what’s called virgin pulp (“virgin” meaning directly from trees without any recycled material). They then transform the pulp into tissue products and ship them around the world for distribution.

This process uses massive amounts of energy, water and chemicals.

It takes time for softwood trees to develop those long fibers. How long? Spruce trees reach old-growth status in about a century. And many boreal forest trees are 300 years old or more.

Think about 300 years of growth and survival, just to be flushed down the toilet.

Using these old-growth trees for the softest toilet paper creates a massive carbon footprint. It’s a footprint about three times the size of alternative pulps.

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

What Chemicals Help Make Toilet Paper Soft?

Using old-growth wood for toilet paper doesn’t fully soften the tissue enough for consumer tastes. Manufacturers must then bleach the pulp to further whiten, soften and strengthen the final product.

Elemental chlorine is one such substance. It’s a human-made chemical that produces dioxins when bleaching tissue products.

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

3 Common Bleaching Methods Used in Toilet Paper

These days, companies use three main methods to soften toilet paper.

Elemental Chlorine-Free (ECF)

ECF is less toxic than elemental chlorine, but it still emits elemental chlorine gas as a byproduct 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.

Processed Chlorine-Free (PCF)

PCF uses alternatives to chlorine: mainly oxygen, ozone and hydrogen peroxide. Recycled toilet paper companies mostly use this method.

Notably, the paper and wood byproducts in recycled tissue have been through the ECF bleaching process. They typically retain some of those chemicals in their fibers.

Totally Chlorine-Free (TCF)

TCF is similar to PCF because hydrogen peroxide and ozone are the most common chemicals involved in the process. But because the product companies use for pulp is unbleached, it’s fully chlorine-free.

At Save Trees (formerly Cloud Paper), we use TCF to make our tree-free toilet paper soft and strong.

Other Harmful Chemicals From TP Processing

Virgin pulp processing creates other air pollutants like formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory issues and possibly even cancer. The process also emits sulfur dioxide. It 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? It’s the brands you know.

Which Toilet Paper Brands Still Use Virgin Pulp?

North America’s largest producers of toilet tissue all use virgin pulp. That means Proctor & Gamble, Georgia-Pacific and Kimberly-Clark.

Brands include names you’re familiar with, and they all received an F on the National Resources Defense Council sustainability scorecard:

Charmin
Angel Soft
Cottonelle
Brawny
Bounty
Kleenex
Quilted Northern
Viva.

These brands also make the softest toilet papers on the market.

How To Wipe Out Deforestation With Tree-Free TP

Want to help save the boreal forest? Good! We do too. Here are four steps we can take together to help end deforestation.

1. Go for Recycled or Alternative TP

Buy recycled toilet paper or toilet paper made from alternative raw materials, like bamboo or wheat straw. Bamboo is a fast-growing, sustainable resource that regenerates in just 3 years.

And you don’t have to give up your soft tissue when you buy bamboo!

2. Opt for FSC-Certified Tissue Products

Buy tissue products that the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has certified. FSC certification ensures the products come from responsibly managed forests.

Bamboo tissue products should also have this certification to prevent deforestation and monoculture where people grow bamboo. Don’t worry: Save Trees bamboo comes from FSC-certified farms!

3. Reduce Your Tissue Use

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 overreliance has created unsustainable demand.

4. Beware of Greenwashing

Beware of the industry-led Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). SFI is greenwashing at its worst.

It provides no restrictions on cutting down old-growth forests and allows the conversion of old-growth forests into monocultures. It doesn’t protect threatened and endangered species. And it doesn't include Indigenous cultures in land management decisions.

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

Help End Deforestation Now With Save Trees Bamboo TP

Good for your body. Good for the planet. Bamboo toilet paper from Save Trees is where it’s at.

Browse our shop for all the soft, sustainable paper products you could need (and feel great about). Contact us with any questions, and we’re happy to answer!

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