Ready to rethink toilet paper for Earth Day?

Tissue paper: I'd only found one recycled brand and it bombed against the two non-recycled tissues we had at home. We all felt the recycled Seventh Generation tissue was too thin. “See-through,” is how Alexis described it. “Not enough barrier” between the fingers and phlegm, was Nicolas' response.

Toilet paper: Here too, my wife and daughter were quick to pick the non-recycled brand out of the five tested. Gabriela had one word for her favorite: “Beautiful.” In equally dramatic fashion, Alexis worried about getting paper cuts from the recycled brands. I agreed the non-recycled brand was softer in one’s hand, but insisted it made no difference on the receiving end of the transaction. We did agree on one thing: Every recycled brand, all of which were double ply, beat the single-ply paper we’ve been using in our guest bathroom.

Closing thoughts
Our advice to readers? Try this experiment at home with as many recycled products you can find.

We all agreed that in the usual course of using a paper product, we probably wouldn't be as picky as we were during the tests, with one exception: When it comes to wiping a runny nose over several days, we made tissue softness a priority.

If you can live with a recycled product, a next step might be to compare prices. Recycled products do tend to cost more, but the NRDC’s Hoover says buying in bulk, and even buying recycled paper made for hotels and offices, can add up to savings.

And that, dare we say, is our bottom line.

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