Beware the Happy Fest of Papery Pleasure

They are so white, so absorbent, so there for me always, just when I need them.  I know you know what I mean. 

Unfortunately, as far as the earth is concerned, paper towels and paper towel usage is not the happy fest of papery pleasure that you might think. 

 To make conventional paper towels, you have to cut down trees.  Cutting down trees, of course, contributes to the earth’s inability to process the excess carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere.  (Here’s a little photosynthesis 101 for those who are unclear on the connection between trees and CO2). 

Once we’ve cut down and processed the trees, we bring on the bleaching chemicals, like a nasty cocktail of badness.  The good news is that chlorine, corrosive and toxic, has mostly been phased out by US and Canadian paper mills.  However, instead of going chlorine-free (a technology that’s been around since the 70’s by the way), mills now use a chlorine derivative, called chlorine dioxide, for their bleaching.

 Although not as damaging as chlorine gas, chlorine dioxide still releases dioxins (a manufacturing by-product, labeled by the EPA as “the most potent carcinogen ever tested in laboratory animals”) (p.s.? that’s bad) into the water, where they work their way back into the earth and up the food chain, until they finally crawl through your window and end up swimming in your latte.  Well, not really, but you get my point.  Inevitably, dioxin contaminated food makes its way back to humans. 

 So what’s a paper-towel lovin’ girl to do?  Baby steps, my friends, baby steps.  The first step is awareness. Sometimes I don’t even realize it when I’m reaching for a paper towel.  I have told my kids that they may shout “That’s a tree!” when they see me reach for a paper towel.  We’ll see how long that lasts before I tell them all to stop yelling at me and send them to their rooms…