In one year, Ohio University uses enough toilet paper to roll halfway around the world - about 13,800 miles - and Steve Mack said he plans to go that distance without damaging the environment along the way.
Mack, who is the director of Buildings and Grounds Services at OU, is in charge of the toilet paper needs for the entire campus. The department is in the process of switching to a 100 percent recycled toilet paper.
The SCA Tork product is actually a better product. It's 100 percent recycled content and I believe the old stuff was somewhere in the 80 percent range
Mack said. I not only was able to get a 100 percent recycled product but for the exact same price.
The university supplies the entire campus with a one-ply product, meaning the thickness is one sheet of paper. Mack said that choice has faced some complaints.
We buy a one-ply product and it's not Charmin what a lot of people are used to using at their home
he said.
Brands like Charmin and Angel Soft have recently topped lists of brands that environmental-watch groups have banned, according to a press release from Greenpeace issued last week.
But despite environmental concerns, toilet paper is driven by consumer requests.
The customer is demanding to have a softer product ... and because of the physical properties of the fibers
those two sectors cannot use recycled fibers
said James Malone, spokesperson for Georgia-Pacific, which produces Quilted Northern, Angel Soft and other tissues.
Trees are harvested to meet the demands of consumers because the fibers of recycled tissue are not long enough to be fluffed into softer tissue.
In the month of January, OU used 339 cases of toilet paper or 4,068 junior jumbo rolls of toilet paper. The sheer amount of the toilet paper that the university uses is why Mack purchases one-ply toilet paper. He said a higher ply would waste more paper, have a more detrimental effect to the environment and thicker paper can also cause problems with sewage disposal.
(Thinner
recycled paper) would have a positive effect because it is not as bulky
said Nick Carr, director of Athens' Water and Sewer.
Brian McCarthy, a professor of environment studies at OU, said that although using recycled materials may seem like the best answer, the processes used to produce the recycled paper could use more toxic chemicals.
The point is that sometimes we put too much emphasis on 'lets recycle
reduce
reuse
' which is all a good thing
