Our need for TP...

Toilet Paper (TP). When did we end up in a toilet paper economy? Meaning when did whether you had enough to last until next year or whether you snagged the last 8 pack at your grocery store was worthy and worth celebrating. It is after all just toilet paper. I get it. People are worried that with the whole family home 24/7, more toilet paper will be used. So this got me asking the question, not “How many roles of toilet paper do I need in my house?” (there are online calculators for this), but “Am i using too much toilet paper each time?” According to several articles, a single American uses 3 rolls per week and this adds up to the US consuming a fifth of the words total toilet paper consumption. It turns out if you do the math more accurately it is roughly 2.7 rolls. And by all accounts, that is virgin fiber paper, not recycled. This means we are destroying forests to wipe our bottoms. This boils down to the fact that we should take less toilet paper each time. According to one site we use 8.6 sheets per trip to bathroom. Oh, and another article that posed wadding vs. folding to physicists, (who created an equation and did the math) discovered that wadding gets you cleaner. So here’s the skinny, used recycled paper TP, take less than 8 sheets and wad it up for a good wipe and to stave off deforestation. Or in your own home, just use the words my summer camp did, “If its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down.” And full disclosure, I bought and 8 pack of recycled TP at the grocery store yesterday because it was there and everyone else was too.