I regularly follow WayLay in Salon, and often find myself looking forward to the week's offering. I felt somewhat compelled to respond this time, though, as I was mildly disturbed by the subject. It's not kewl to wipe oneself on the great forests. Much better to use hempen paper. If only it were the primary source of paper fiber...

plenty of cultures don´t.

throughout India and the Arab world it is common to have a little pitcher of water (a "lotay") next to the glory hole (which is waterless and one squats over it) to be used for cleansing. If one has means, the pitcher might be replaced by a hose. It feels a little awkward to clean up that way, but one soon gets used to it. It works fine.

No toilet paper required, and much less water than the typical American uses in a flush...which is by the way about three gallons.

You don´t need three gallons of water and toilet paper to clean yourself. However, its hard to believe until you´ve actually been forced to do it.

Love your stuff!

I see ads for little back-of-the-toilet handwashing sinks, designed so the water flowing into the tank can be used to rinse the hands without wasting water. Why not add a hose to that gizmo that could be aimed at the area and used for cleansing? (Yikes, it is cold water!)

By the way, I once suggested to a friend that she buy the less soft toilet paper that lasts longer per roll. She did, but her husband said it was not soft enough for him. "Well, at least," she said, "We have found one area of sensitivity."

...resulted in a 100% rejection of the idea of using recycled paper as "bathroom tissue" (aka asswipe).

Trial balloons sometimes take years before they soar.

I've found that the coarser and recycled stuff cleans better and besides, we can now use both sides of the paper.

When he bought the toilet paper,

The naive little boy let raper

of the forest Weyerhauser,

Stay rich, and happy as a schnauzer.

you've had an encounter with the GreenPeace canvasers that have been active the last couple of months on this campaign. I'm surprised we haven't found a way to grind up spotted owls to make a fluffier bum wipe. Factoid--most of the world doesn't use bum wipe...the use bidet style sprayers. Wiping with your hand is considered YUCK.

for things like kitchen towels and toilet paper, but someone explain why the recycled forms cost so much more for so much less product?

I mean, you go to Whale Foods and the tiny recycled toilet paper and kitchen towels are high priced and low quantity.

I want to do all I can to preserve old growth, but I also need to preserve my "whole paycheck", and green TP doesn't cut it.

Same goes for the "recycled" aluminum foil - it's outrageously expensive and it's f**king RECYCLED! It should cost LESS.

environmentalism + marketing = ripoff

Hey! I'm a life long tree hugger, I even have my own little two acres of hundred plus year old Doug firs and Cedars that will not be cut as long as my family owns that tiny piece of the paradise that is the northwestern rain forest. I've also been a logger, a sawmill dog, and a commercial tree planter of the industrial forest kind.

While there were horrendous practices in the past, and nearly all the original stands of uncut giants out here were long gone before my time, it's a little ridiculous to blame the toilet paper for any true old growth logs that are being cut these days. At least in the lower 48. The very few old growth groves that face the ax these days produce extremely high value timber, but there really isn't much demand for them. The mills that could cut them were torn down decades ago. Cheap, subsidized imports from BC, where mills are damn near given the stumpage rights are another - although we, too, damn near give our forests away to corporate entities as well through a different process.

But really, a lot of the toilet paper made out here - and I live a mere 10 miles from a huge paper mill that makes it and paper towels - is made from low value by products from the few sawmills left, or from plantation grown cottonwoods (that don't need as much bleaching).

Sure, maybe we shouldn't be using trees at all for toilet paper, or anything. I'm not entirely hostile to that notion. But when you think of what some of the alternatives are to wood - precious drinking water, for instance, or steel for home construction instead of dimension lumber - you start to see that addressing one "problem" only pushes the balloon out in another direction.

I'd like to see the roadless areas protected, the remaining giant groves saved for good, and improved, sustainable logging in areas that can support it. But really, don't feel too bad for using toilet paper.

Oh... and I really like your cartoon work Carol. I always read you.

Why do organic bananas sell at Whale Foods for $6 a bunch, when you can get them at Wal-Mart for much less (albeit a little bit more expensive still than regular bananas) ?

Why do people by a Prius for $22,000+ when a new Corolla offers the same space, practicality and lower yet still excellent mileage for $5000-$7000 less?

And in general: why are eco-friendly greenie products sold with ridiculous profit margins built into their high prices?

Because they are not targeted to people who are financially conservative, or who have little disposable income.

Eco-friendly products are marketed as ego-massagers and fashion statements to upper-middle class folk...

Buy an overpriced recycled fair trade tee-pee roll, pat yourself on the back. Better yet, tell your neighbors, friends and family so that they can pat your back too --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smug_Alert!

Then let's see how eager the earth hippies are about this.