Toilet paper

We recently switched our toilet paper from whatever major brand was on sale (usually Cottonelle) to Green Forest. Here are the major reasons why:

1) It's made from 100% recycled paper, 90% post-consumer (ie. not virgin wood)

2) It is processed chlorine free (PCF)

When toilet paper is whitened most companies use chlorine. Chlorine reacts with the lignins in the wood used to make the toilet paper and creates dioxins. Dioxins are harmful to the environment and the EPA classified them as a probable human carcinogen. Dioxins can be absorbed through skin contact.

Unfortunately if you want to use recycled toilet paper you can't avoid whatever dioxins might have been present in the recycled paper prior to processing. TCF (totally chlorine free) paper uses virgin wood.

3) Green Forest is hypoallergenic, dye-free, and fragrance-free.


The NRDC has created an environmental rating system for household paper products. You can read more here. To see where your brand falls check out this list.

[While we're on the topic of paper, here's a list of totally chlorine free (TCF) and PCF printer paper if you're interested.]

We don't use napkins, but we do have tissues and paper towels around. I'll address those changes in our house another time.

So we moved from red-rated (ie. bad!) Cottonelle to green-rated Green Forest. The quality is basically the same. They're both 2-ply. Cottonelle is a little bit softer, but Green Forest is a little sturdier. Not enough to make me care either way.


Cost comparison on Amazon:
Cottonelle 4 packs of 12 double rolls (48 rolls), 176 sheets per roll: $42.89 (89 cents/roll) -- worth noting that this is a pretty good deal if I remember the price at the grocery store correctly. if you subscribe the price gets lower

Green Forest 4 packs of 12 double rolls (48 rolls), 352 sheets per roll: $53.36 ($1.10/roll) -- if you subscribe the price gets lower

So it looks like Green Forest is pricier at $1.10/roll, but it has double the number of sheets per roll which ends up actually making it cheaper. Woohoo!

Convenient access:
Easier to get Cottonelle. Green Forest is pretty easy to get in the organic aisle at the grocery store, but it's usually just the small packs and I've heard they aren't the same softness? Not sure. We buy in bulk from Amazon.

So all in all, another win for green! I have a bunch of posts in the works right now and am hoping to get them up this week. We've made a lot of changes around here.

*I should mention that we are getting this delivered by Amazon (as we are many products). You have to take into account the energy/emissions, etc. spent to get the product to our door. However, dioxins are bad for the environment and for your health ... I justify it by signing up for automatic delivery so Amazon can factor our deliveries into their routes in advance to make the most efficient route possible. It comes in a recyclable cardboard box, but I suspect it would come that way at the grocery store, too (upon delivery) and the box might not even get recycled there. You have to weigh your options and figure out what's best for you.