Yesterday my significant other brought home recycled toilet paper. It cost about $1.50 more than the regular stuff we buy (for 4 rolls). I’m usually all for recycled paper, but this struck me as a bit much. But it did get me thinking a little about how much it costs to live a greener lifestyle, and support producers of products like this.

I’m not just talking about how much more it costs to buy recycled goods or more environmentally-friendly products. Companies that make use of ‘green marketing’ strategies know that we will pay a premium for anything in green packaging. That’s not the issue here, because that’s a choice we’ve all made already.

We know that our recycled toilet paper and our bio-degradable garbage bags are more expensive than their standard counterparts, but this is a small price to pay for negating the environmental impact usually associated with producing these types of products.

The question I want to ask is this: what is the cost of producing something like recycled toilet paper, and are we actually doing the environment some good by buying these kinds of goods? What are the costs involved, quantifiable or not, in producing recycled toilet paper? More importantly, what is the difference in carbon footprint between the two?

The costs of recycling paper can be summed up as follows:

• Collection costs
• Sorting costs
• Cleaning, pulping and processing costs (the recycling part)

It’s difficult to quantify these, but quickly hitting Wikipedia tells us that recycled paper is 40% more energy efficient than cutting down a tree and turning it into paper. We would imagine it costs slightly less than cutting down a tree and turning it into paper, but unfortunately there is very little data available on this because of the large variation in paper production processes.

Still, that sounds great. We’re saving 40% of the energy by buying recycled toilet paper, right?

Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Our recycled toilet paper was almost 150% more expensive – so we’re paying 150% more money to save 40% of the energy. That’s not really much of a trade off. Remember that earning that extra $1.50 comes with its own carbon footprint.

On closer inspection of the product I find even more bad news. It is made of recycled paper, but not all of it is. In fact, only about 30% of my particular toilet tissue was made of what is called ‘Post-Consumer Waste’, which is actual waste recovered from consumers. The rest? Well, that comes from trees.

I also learnt that the bleaching process is important, because chlorine bleaching by-products can be extremely harmful to the environment. Always look for Chlorine Free (TCF) or Processed Chlorine-Free (PCF) products.

Save the Trees

Of course, the main reason you’d buy recycled toilet paper is not because you’re saving energy. This is where the good news comes in. According to the NRDC (National Resources Defence Council) website, if every household in America replaced just one roll of toilet paper that is in their bathroom right now with recycled paper, America would have saved 423,900 trees.

The Verdict?

It’s not really difficult to see the rationale behind buying recycled toilet paper. The energy savings are minimal, and the price doesn’t really seem justified, until you factor in the massive environmental damage that using virgin paper causes. The number above – 423,900 trees – is a little bit abstract and hard to get your head around. What confuses the issue is that there are around 115 million households in the US.

To put it in simpler terms – if your household uses 5 toilet rolls per week, you’re looking at one whole tree saved by you alone, simply by changing to recycled toilet tissue. That will cost you around $75 extra a year, give or take a couple of bucks (or, a lot less than a tree costs).

Double that if you also replace your kitchen towels with recycled paper products, and you can save up to five trees a year by replacing napkins and facial tissues as well.

For your reference, here is a list of (American and International) recycled paper brands to look out for.