TOILET PAPER

Like A Babys Bottom

Arun Bhatia


As our house guest, at dinner hed had the usual spicy thali meal with us. In the morning, from our guest bedroom , this American friend said: Hmmm. I know now why you people carry water to the toilet. We desis are on the right track. Have been on the right track for a while now by carrying water to the toilet. For, recent findings are that the tender , delicate American buttock is causing more ecological damage than the nations gas-guzzling cars and fast food. Green campaigners are saying that the American public wants extra soft, quilted and multiply products when they go to the bathroom. Says Alan Hershkowitz, scientist at the Natural Resources Defence Council: This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the environmental devastation from manufacturing it from trees is enormous. Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age.
It is made from virgin wood because longer fibres in virgin wood are easier to lay out and fluff up. But it is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution. The chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests have a significant impact. In fact, there is a campaign by Greenpeace on raising American consciousness about the costs of their toilet habits. Greenpeace is countering the big ads by the paper industry honchos, who are pushing luxury brands . The majority of the toilet roll sold in the US comes from virgin forests, says Hershkowitz. Not so in Europe and Latin America, where 40 per cent of toilet paper comes from recycled products. Greenpeace says that we have this myth in the US that recycled anything is so low quality, its like cardboard and impossible to use. The big paper product manufacturers use celebrities to push the so-called comforts of luxury brand toilet paper and tissue . These brands put quilting and pockets of air between several layers of paper. They are damaging the environment. A news report suggested that Kimberly-Clark , a paper products major, spent $25 million in the third quarter of 2008 on advertising to persuade Americans against trusting their bottoms to cheaper brands. I couldnt say all this to the American friend. He was a guestatithi devo bhavah and all that.