NRDC: Shopper's Guide for Paper Products
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 08. 3.06
The NRDC created this handy guide (also available as a wallet-card format PDF) to help people decide which paper products to buy and which to avoid based on 6 criteria: percentage of recycled content, percentage of post-consumer recycled content, is it approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, are they protecting endangered forests, how the bleaching is done and mercury avoidance. They cover facial tissue, toilet paper, paper towels and napkins, and each matrix in the guide has a little fact to illustrate the importance of our choices. For example: "If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees." Reduce your paper consumption as much as possible, but for the rest, vote with your wallet. ::A Shopper's Guide to Home Tissue Products, and don't forget to sign this petition and check out the latest NRDC.tv video (don't hesitate to leave feedback about the NRDC videos in the comments).
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Very handy and helpful. Going to print one out now!
they forgot Trader Joe's brand. It's 100% recycled, but I don't know if they bleach and if so with what... I couldn't contact them to ask them to add TJ's.
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editor note: Trader Joe's brand is there in Toilet Paper and Paper Towels. To see it you have to go to the page and click on "See Full List". I think it didn't make it to the top because it only has 35 post-consumer recycled content and they don't disclose much about the rest of their production process.
Just use cloth napkins,towels and handkerchief!! They work better, last for years and save money.
Handkerchiefs are a great alternative to disposable tissues.
I think that we need to reverse the trend towards disposable goods.
I remember reading recently that the problem is that recycled tissue and toilet paper doesn't sell. The reason: You buy it, you discover it's more like sandpaper than soft. You decide you don't want to wipe with sandpaper.
Until the recycled paper guys figure out how to get their paper soft, few are going to switch.
Is it better to recycle "recycled paper towels" and "recycled toilet paper" or to throw it out? Also for biodegradable stuff, once again, is it better to throw it away and allow it to biodegrade or to recycle it? One other thing, can envelopes with the plastic windows be recycled or does the plastic window need to be removed?
I compared Seventh Generation toilet paper bought from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's Toilet paper. Both are 100% recycled and 80% post consumer content. Both do the job just fine. Cost wise, TJ's wins.