We cut down 27,000 trees every single day – just to make toilet paper. Yes, you read that correctly. We treat loo roll as if it’s an infinite resource. We’re obsessed with having the “softest”, “strongest”, most “velvety” paper made from virgin pulp. All this to wipe after going to the toilet? View this post on Instagram Everyday, we use an approximate 57 sheets of toilet paper, and visit the toilet between 4 - 10 times. Do we take it all for granted? 19 Nov is #WorldToiletDay, stay tuned to find out more about this movement. #NooTreesSG A post shared by NooTrees Singapore (@nootreesbamboo) on Nov 14, 2019 at 1:35am PST It’s incredible, really, that something as innocuous as toilet paper can cause such destruction to our planet. Aside from installing bidets into every single home and ditching loo roll altogether (which, let’s face it, ain’t going to happen) what can we do to prevent humanity flushing the world’s forests down the toilet? Because, good luck surviving in a world without trees. Coronavirus round-up: from K-pop to Weibo, STYLE’s top 5 stories The issue with tissue In the US alone, the annual spend on toilet paper is US$6 billion. The environmental cost is equally eye-watering. To feed the demand, it takes 1.7 trillion litres of water, 250,000 tonnes of bleach and 15 million trees. Add the rest of the world’s TP consumption into the equation, and we’re looking at even scarier figures. Once you’ve digested the numbers, it’s perhaps not quite as astonishing to learn that 15 per cent of global deforestation is due to toilet paper. And it barely needs stating that forests are essential to our survival; not only do they provide the air we breathe and a home to millions of species, but they also store vast amounts of carbon. In a nutshell, they protect us from the worst impacts of climate change. The forests are paying the price Three main regions across the globe provide the raw materials (i.e. trees) for the toilet paper industry: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Harendra Singh Keelka (@lovely_view_of_nature) on Mar 25, 2020 at 12:49am PDT The rainforests of Sumatra View this post on Instagram A post shared by anita (@anitamoroni01) on Aug 31, 2019 at 3:57am PDT It’s happening on our doorstep. In 2012, a WWF report focusing on the Indonesian island of Sumatra revealed the devastating consequences of APP (the fifth largest producer of toilet paper in 2008). It states: “Since 1985, Sumatra has lost more than half of its forest cover, leaving less than 31 million acres. With only about 400 Sumatran tigers and fewer than 2,800 Sumatran elephants left in the wild, this last remaining habitat is critical to the survival of these species.” It continues that APP is “responsible for more forest destruction in Sumatra than any other single company”. It seems we are choosing toilet paper over tigers. Experts weigh in: How to reuse, recycle and upcycle our trash The Boreal forest of Canada View this post on Instagram A post shared by S H A M I M A (@shamiicaptures) on Oct 29, 2018 at 5:31am PDT Spanning over a billion acres, the Boreal forest holds around 12 per cent of the world’s carbon stores (more than any other forest biome on the planet). According to a 2019 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Stand.earth, industrial logging fuelled by TP companies is making light work of destroying it. In one nine-year period (from 1996 to 2015), over 28 million acres were cleared, disrupting indigenous communities, destroying the natural habitats of myriad wildlife species, and leaving vast swathes of land barren. Due to the nature in which the area has been logged – by clear-cutting, a method that removes all trees from an area – estimates suggest it will take at least 100 years for regions of the Boreal to return to its pre-logged condition. Yikes. 5 films and TV shows almost certain to make you turn vegan Great Northern Forest, Sweden View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Great Northern Forest (@greatnorthernforest) on Apr 4, 2018 at 8:34am PDT According to this 2017 Greenpeace report, “around 68 per cent of Sweden’s land area is classified by the government as forest land”. However, since the introduction of industrial logging in the 1950s, much of this “old-growth forest” has been replaced with industrial timber plantations. Now, over 60 per cent of all forest in Sweden is less than 60 years old (which isn’t mature enough to harvest). Thanks to the TP industry’s increasing demand for virgin pulp, large parts of Sweden’s Great Northern Forest are at risk, and only 7.5 per cent of the forest is officially protected. The clear-cutting has also led to a decline in hundreds of forest species, including plants, animals, fungi and lichen. All so we can continue to wipe with virgin pulp, quilted toilet paper. Seems crazy, right? So what can we do about it? View this post on Instagram 15 billion trees are cut down each year, robbing wildlife of their homes and fueling global warming. On International Forest Day, let’s take a moment to appreciate the forests around us, our Earth’s lungs and do our part to protect them before it’s too late! #IntlForestDay #maketheswitch A post shared by NooTrees Singapore (@nootreesbamboo) on Mar 21, 2020 at 8:17pm PDT The thing is, we don’t need to rely on virgin tree pulp to create toilet paper. There’s a 100 per cent biodegradable, 100 per cent sustainable, and 100 per cent renewable alternative that’s available now (and feels exactly the same as a wood product): bamboo. In recent years, we’ve seen organisations like NooTrees emerge as forerunners in the battle against deforestation. It uses bamboo across its entire product range (including toilet paper, wet wipes, and facial tissues). View this post on Instagram A post shared by DESTINATIONPIX (@destinationpix) on Mar 24, 2020 at 7:54pm PDT Why? It takes 30 years to grow a tree, while bamboo only needs three years to reach maturity. Meaning it can produce five to six times more raw material than trees during the same time frame. It also doesn’t need perfect arable land on which to grow. Instead, it can work its magic in even the most degraded soil. View this post on Instagram “Choosing Bamboo is more sustainable for many reasons! It is the fastest growing plant in our region, it requires no fertiliser to grow, it regenerates from its own roots so it doesn’t ever need more land space to be replanted, and it releases way more oxygen as compared to other trees.” - Aarika Lee @aarikalee has committed to #Maketheswitch to NooTrees, have you? A post shared by NooTrees Singapore (@nootreesbamboo) on Feb 7, 2020 at 2:30am PST Switching your toilet paper from virgin tree pulp to a bamboo product is a #LittleGreenStep we can all take. And for the sake of saving our forests and hundreds of endangered species, it’s a small price to pay #MakeTheSwitch. This article originally appeared on Green is the New Black. Want more stories like this? Sign up here . Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter . Purchase the China AI Report 2020 brought to you by SCMP Research and enjoy a 20% discount (original price US$400). 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