Organic Paper Towels

🌎 The demand for paper products is still high. 15% of global deforestation is caused by paper products. Approximately 90% of the world’s paper is manufactured from wood pulp, and only 1% of paper is made from non-wood sources in the United States.  It can take decades for a forest to be able to clean the air from constantly produced pollution, and making paper from these forests is far from sustainable. Every year, over 900 million trees are harvested for the purpose of producing paper. These harvested trees can take over 30 years to regrow.

In Australia alone, over 3 million trees could be saved if we all switched to bamboo. The more people who switch to Tree-Free paper, renew, reuse & recycle, the greater the message to the government and the world.

If 98% of paper on retail shelves contains chlorine bleach, is filled with lint, contains BPA derivatives, and is made from full-grown trees manufacturers chop down, then it is time we completely move forward.

Conventional Paper Towel Brands:

Avoid conventional paper brands, which not only can be toxic but are also responsible for deforestation. Paper from trees: The big toilet paper brands, such as Charmin, Quilted Northern, and Angel Soft, primarily use freshly cut trees.

• ❌ Paper from trees: The big paper brands, such as Charmin, Quilted Northern, and Angel Soft, primarily use freshly cut trees.

• ❌ Wood Fiber: TP from wood is responsible for 15% of global deforestation

• ❌ Bleach: TP bleached with chlorine and toxins are environmental pollutants and hazards that could cause skin irritation as well. 

• ❌ Fragrances: a mysterious mix of undisclosed ingredients often responsible for skin irritations and toxic reactions.

• ❌ BPA: Bisphenol-A (BPA) and Bisphenol-S (BPS) are potentially toxic hormone-mimicking chemicals used in some plastics and plastic sealants. BPA has also been found in the ink on newspapers and receipts, leading to the presence of BPA in recycled paper products. 

• ❌ Formaldehyde: It is usually added to conventional paper to increase absorption.

• ❌ Colors added: unnecessary waste of resources and irritant agents and polluting factors. Choose white paper

• ❌ PFAS: Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals that are often used in food packaging. These chemicals don’t break down and can accumulate in the human body over time, leading to adverse health effects. Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found in toilet paper around the world!  There are six main PFAS compounds that account for the majority of PFAS detected in toilet paper and other household products: PFHxA, PFOA, PFDA, 6:2 diPAP, 6:2/8:2 diPAP, and 8:2 diPAP. 

Greenwashing Paper Towel Brands: 

In this category, there are brands that are still better than regular tree paper, but if they truly want to be eco-friendly and offer better products, they should step up to the next step: safer brand

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❌ Recycled Paper

Even if Post-consumer recycled paper is a big improvement over paper made from virgin tree pulp because less water, less energy, and fewer chemicals are involved, there is an issue. Post-consumer recycled paper is known to contain small amounts of bisphenol-A and bisphenol-S, better known as BPA and BPS, which is likely the result of the presence of thermal receipts in our paper recycling streams. While these BPA levels are generally under legal limits, we wanted paper that was entirely BPA-free.

❌ Processed Chlorine-Free (PCF)

Processed chlorine-free but may contain residuals from recycled paper mix. Some processed may contain a mixture of recycled materials that could have contained bleach. TCF has no mixture. PCF-free whitening method is not approved when it is used for bleaching recycled materials. The process itself is not toxic, and it produces no dioxins. It is considered the most eco-friendly by the Natural Resources Defense Council. With the PCF method, the issue is that it’s impossible to know whether the original papers were bleached with elemental chlorine or chlorine dioxide. Unless it is used for organic bamboo (not recycled paper involved), I explain it below!

Bleaching Breakdown

Here, you learn all about bleaching techniques: 

✅ Unbleached Toilet Paper

The best and safest option is unbleached toilet paper since it skips the bleaching step altogether, making it safer and more sustainable. Unbleached toilet paper is free from chlorine and other harsh chemicals used in the bleaching process, reducing exposure to potentially harmful substances. Hypoallergenic Properties: Without chemical residues, unbleached toilet paper is often less irritating to the skin, making it beneficial for those with sensitive skin or allergies. Reduced Environmental Impact: The production of unbleached toilet paper releases fewer pollutants into waterways and the air, as it skips the chemical-intensive bleaching stage

✅ Processed Chlorine-Free (PCF)

Safer only when it is used with bamboo paper and not with recycled material, which is considered contaminated. The organic bamboo toilet paper process does not include recycling, so in this case, PCF is approved because this whitening method is not used for bleaching recycled materials. The concern with recycled paper is that if toxic chemicals were used to produce the original paper, they can get mixed into the recycling process. So you want to find organic bamboo paper PCF: Paper that is processed chlorine-free (PCF) uses ozone, oxygen and/or peroxide to bleach the paper. This method uses no chlorine, thus significantly reducing the amount of harmful waste produced by the process. The process itself is not toxic, and it produces no dioxins. It is considered the most eco-friendly bleaching method by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

✅ Totally Chlorine-Free (TCF)

Better & safer: bleaching is completely chlorine-free! Instead of elemental chlorine or chlorine dioxide, TCF bleaching uses oxygen-based agents or hydrogen peroxide. That means it completely eliminates dioxin pollutants, making it safe for the environment and for you. The process reduces the total amount of waste, requires less energy, and consumes less water. This method is much more complex (and therefore expensive) than the ECF method.

Elemental Chlorine-Free (ECF) 

• For nearly a century, there was really only one method of paper bleaching: Elemental Chlorine, a toxin so potent that it was used as a poison gas in WWI. The EPA finally stepped in in the 1980s, by the 1990s, almost all paper bleaching in North America switched over to the ECF method: Elemental Chlorine Free.

• Elemental Chlorine-Free (ECF)  is a cheaper toilet paper bleaching process. ECF (Elemental Chlorine-Free) technology includes hydrogen peroxide as the primary compound but also includes oxygen and chlorine dioxide. The compound chlorine dioxide is used instead of chlorine gas to whiten the tissue and produces only trace amounts of the toxic pollutant. 

• It is still unclear whether those trace amounts are harmful to the environment or not. The pulp when is bleached with chlorine dioxide, which is a chlorine derivative that can still release dioxins. Dioxins are known toxin that causes reproductive and infertility problems in adults, damage the immune system, and interfere with the endocrine system.  
• Until recently, almost all toilet paper was made with chlorinated bleach. In the last few years, as the damaging effects of bleach on our bodies and the environment became harder to ignore, some toilet paper companies have switched to an ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free) process. This is an improvement over previous methods, but Elemental Chlorine particles are still produced in the process and ultimately find their way into our waterways and bloodstream. Ideally, you want to pick unbleached paper.

Safer Paper Towel Brands

If you, too, want to be part of the solution to protect the Earth and have fewer chemicals and toxins around, here is how to choose the most eco-friendly TP on the market: 

✅ Tree-Free: Avoid TP that is made with trees, including recycled ones. They are made by trees, and then they have been highly processed.

✅ Forest Stewardship Council® FSC Certified: The Forest Stewardship Council is an international organization that is dedicated to responsible forestry. They work to protect the environment and ecosystems within forests as well as the communities that surround and inhabit them. It not only works to protect water quality and prevent the loss of natural forest cover, but it also prohibits the use of hazardous chemicals in forests and protects the rights of local communities. Forest Stewardship Council® / Rainforest Alliance practices mission-based principles designed to promote health, limit environmental impact, and support social responsibility.

FSC certification ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits. FSC-certified toilet paper means the source comes from certified mills and farms. Purchasing FSC-certified TP helps prevent deforestation, including the conversion of natural forests into plantations. It protects the forests of local communities and even helps people rebuild their forest homes. Purchasing FSC-certified TP helps prevent deforestation, including the conversion of natural forests into plantations.

✅ Totally Chlorine-Free (TCF) versus Elemental Chlorine-Free. To be sure that your TP is made without any chlorine, we need to get it only when they state Total Chlorine Free (TCF), Elemental Chlorine-free still uses chlorine, so avoid that!

✅ Processed Chlorine-Free (PCF): bamboo paper (only with bamboo it is approved and not recycled material).

✅ Sugarcane: It is the largest agricultural crop in the world. Sugar cane renews itself in as little as 12 months. Virgin sugar cane and bamboo pulp are comparable to freshly harvested tree pulp and is softer than recycled paper.

✅ Bamboo grass: is another renewable resource that can be harvested for production. It can grow three inches in just one day! It can regenerate to its full growth in as little as six months. Bamboo Produces 35% more Oxygen than Trees. Bamboo is farmed organically so no herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic fertilizers are used to grow the bamboo!

✅ Hydrogen peroxide: which is a natural alternative to chemical bleaching agents.

✅ Panda friendly: Great strides have been made in recent years in China to conserve the Giant Pandas through the establishment of Panda reserves.

Panda-friendly bamboo:

• When their bamboo is not a food source for the Panda Bear

• It is not harvested in any areas that could affect Panda Bears

• There are at least 1,500 species of bamboo, and the bamboo grass used has been certified as a species that is not a food source for pandas.

✅ Plastic-free packaging: I try to avoid plastic packaging 

✅ Organic bamboo: 100% Natural Responsplastic-free packibly Sourced Bamboo

✅ PLUS:

• Fragrances Free

• Bleach Free

• BPA Free

• PFAS Free

• Lint Free

• Parabens Free

• Harmful Fertilizers, Herbicides, or Pesticides Free

✅ USDA Biobased product: is identified as a product that is made up of primarily biological or agricultural materials. The USDA label assures consumers that the product contains a USDA-verified amount of renewable biological ingredients. 

Bamboo difference:

• Bamboo is one of the world’s fastest-growing plants, capable of growing up to three feet in 24 hours. Bamboo grows about 39 inches in a single day making it a much more sustainable resource than virgin wood. It requires little water, and no fertilizer, and regenerates on its own after cutting. The more regularly bamboo is harvested, the faster it grows.

• It belongs to the grass family, or Poaceae, a family of plants characterized by long, slender leaves and hollow stems. Unlike trees, most grasses reach their full height in a single growing season compared to decades. 

• Bamboo absorbs 35% more CO₂ per hectare than equivalent plants and can grow up to 39 inches in just one day. That means that bamboo is ultra-replenishable in addition to helping reduce deforestation (15% of deforestation is due to toilet paper production).

• Water preservation: it takes 30% less water to make bamboo toilet paper than regular toilet paper! One roll of Bamboo TP takes around 0.59 gallons of water. One roll of conventional TP takes 37 gallons of water!

• Bamboo is 100% biodegradable.

Process:

Unbleached and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified bamboo is chipped down, and the useful and non-useful material is separated. It simply goes into a thermo process of water to turn it into pulp.  The additive of silicate of soda, which is toxic-free and saf,e is used as a binding agent to make the pulp bales.  The bales are then turned into paper, with nothing else added, including any whitening agents. It is then pressed and rolled out into the TP we love!

NOTE: 

Organically grown bamboo pulp is harvested in China. Companies explain that: “Previous life cycle analyses comparing the impact of tree-free paper produced in China for western markets to that of domestically produced tree paper indicate that, even with the incremental carbon and environmental costs associated with ocean freight, the imported tree-free paper uses less carbon by a factor of three. Simply put, tree paper is made by systematically destroying the most efficient system of carbon capture on earth: the Boreal Forest. The benefits of keeping those forests working as they’re supposed to far outweigh the costs of the alternative.”

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The conclusion from the worst to the best paper Category:

❌ Tree paper  ~ bleached with chorine ~ plastic packaging

❌ Tree paper  ~ unbleached ~ plastic packaging

❌ Bamboo paper  ~ ECF ~ plastic packaging

✅ Bamboo paper ~ ECF ~ plastic-free packaging

✅ Bamboo paper ~ unbleached ~ plastic packaging

✅ Bamboo paper ~ unbleached ~ plastic-free packaging

✅ Bamboo paper ~Processed Chlorine-Free (PCF) ~plastic-free packaging

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The Best Paper:

✅ Organic Bamboo paper

✅ FSC Certified

✅ TCF (Totally Chlorine-Free)

✅ Bamboo paper ~Processed Chlorine-Free (PCF) 

✅ BPA-free

✅ Panda-Friendly 🐼

✅ 100% Plastic-free packaging

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🍃 Simply making the switch to alternative eco-friendly tree-free paper products can have a far greater impact than you can even imagine !🐠 🐙 🐢

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The Best Organic Paper Towel Brands

My number one recommended toilet paper brand is:

Here are the approved brands listed below. My number one recommended brands are:

• 🌿 Rustic Strength   20% off link 
• 🌿 Reel Paper 20% off code: PRETTYORGANICGIRL
• 🌿 WHOLEROLL 20% off code: PRETTYORGANICGIRL
• 🌿 Eco Cheeks Unbleached, FSC-certified, and plastic-free packaging. Australian brand. 

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