Full of Piss & Vinegar
The idiom full of piss & vinegar is from 1920s and means “An abundance or excessive amount of boisterous, youthful energy, enthusiasm, or rowdiness.” And it’s how we feel about this toilet paper.
Yup. Toilet paper.
From our home, to the shop— and now your home— PlantPaper is tree-free, toxin-free toiler paper.
The following is taken from PlantPaper.us
Some History
In the early 20th century, after centuries of wiping with stones, sponges, shirttails and corn cobs, we started using paper made of virgin tree pulp, chlorine, formaldehyde and a host of other toxic chemicals— a scorched earth approach to cleanliness— and haven’t stopped since.
The hidden costs of this practice are appalling: 27,000 trees per day flushed down the world’s toilets, including thousands of acres of boreal forest per minute; 37 gallons of water per roll; and over a gallon of bleach, formaldehyde and other chemicals per roll. And we now know that the very chemicals that make our toilet paper so white and fluffy also make it the cause of UTIs, fissures, vulvar irritation, and hemorrhoids.
Toilet paper is supposed to leave us feeling clean. But theres nothing clean about toilet paper made from trees. That’s why Boketto is now selling 8-packs of PlantPaper. Learn more, why we’re fans and why you should give PlantPaper a try.
Whats wrong with toilet paper made from trees?
Using trees to make toilet paper is an ecological catastrophe. You’ve probably seen the statistic that 27,000 trees are cut down each day to make toilet paper— a big number to be sure, but what does it mean? Any tree is better off left standing than flushed down the toilet, but not all trees, and not all forests, are created equal.
Most toilet paper sold in the U.S. and Canada contains a significant percentage of pulp derived from old-growth virgin trees found in the Canadian Boreal Forest. This forest, which spans Canada (and the rest of the northern hemisphere) just below the Arctic circle, is the world’s most important carbon sink. It stores more carbon than all of the world’s gas, coal and oil reserves combined, and removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere equivalent to the annual emissions of 24 million passenger vehicles.
The effects of clear-cutting such forests are staggering. Clear-cutting the Canadian Boreal Forest releases 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. While portions of this forest are replanted, even those that adhere to FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) regulations can take more than 100 years to return to their original state, and many never do. Old growth forests are one of the planet’s most important bulwarks against catastrophic climate change, but it has come under sustained assault by the tree paper industry.
All of this is to say nothing of the impact on indigenous communities in the Boreal region (of which there are over 600) or of wildlife populations (caribou, marten, lynx, and migratory birds in particular) whose numbers have declined precipitously in the last 25 years as their habitats have disappeared.
Tree paper is equally alarming from a human health perspective. It isn’t easy turning big, old trees into soft, fluffy paper. In fact, it takes over a gallon of chemicals per roll, including bleaching agents, formaldehyde, and a handful of known carcinogens. While these chemicals are present in amounts that don’t exceed current FDA regulations, an ever-expanding body of research indicates that toilet paper made with such chemicals is the cause of urinary tract infections, vulvar irritation, hemorrhoids, and a host of other maladies we’d all prefer to avoid.
Despite the ubiquity of toilet paper in our lives, there’s only a small handful of companies who actually produce the stuff, and as a result they hold outsize decision-making power over what products we introduce into our most precious environments.
Why is Plant Paper better than recycled paper?
Recycled is a big improvement over paper made from virgin tree pulp. It uses less water, less energy, and fewer chemicals. The higher the post-consumer recycled content, the better the paper— at least for the environment.
But our bodies are another story. Post-consumer recycled toilet paper is known to contain small amounts of bisphenol-A and bisphenol-S, better known as BPA and BPS, which is likely the result of the presence of thermal receipts in our paper recycling streams. While these BPA levels are generally under legal limits, we wanted a toilet paper that was entirely BPA-free.
What is PlantPaper made of?
- PlantPaper toilet paper is made of FSC Certified, organically grown bamboo pulp. Bamboo is one of the world’s fastest growing plants, capable of growing up to three feet in 24 hours. It requires little water, no fertilizer and regenerates on its own after cutting. The more regularly bamboo is harvested, the faster it grows.
- PlantPaper is TCF: Totally Chlorine Free. Until recently, almost all toilet paper was made with chlorinated bleach. In the last few years, as the damaging effects of bleach on our bodies and the environment became harder to ignore, some toilet paper companies have switched to an ECF process, or Element Chlorine Free. This is a marginal improvement over previous methods, but Elemental Chlorine particles are still produced in the process, and ultimately find their way into our waterways and bloodstreams.
What about the design?
PlantPaper contains no dyeing agents of any kind, so the off-white color corresponds to the natural color of the bamboo pulp used to make it.
PlantPaper’s signature embossed pattern is about more than just decoration; it improves performance. The pattern of dimples running continuously across the surface of the paper helps make the paper grippier, meaning getting more out of each wipe and ultimately using fewer sheets. On the flip side, the de-bossed side of the paper (the one facing outwards on the roll) is extra silky and soft— perfect for dabbing.
Buying PlantPaper just feels better. It comes in a cardboard recyclable package—not plastic. I just grabbed a box for my house :)
The above quote is from Boketto Founder, Jelena Nikolajevic, taken (unedited) from our Slack channel. Toxin-free and tree-free, made of Certified organically grown bamboo pulp... But it comes down to feel, and PlantPaper delivers. We cant say enough good things about this toilet paper!