Tell P&G: Stop making toilet paper from virgin boreal forest
A million acres — an area larger than Rhode Island. That’s how much of Canada’s ancient, carbon-siphoning, biologically rich boreal forest is cut down every year.1
We’re flushing our forests away.
Where does all that lumber go? A significant portion is pulped to make extra soft tissue products for Procter & Gamble, which owns well-known brands Charmin and Bounty. That’s not sustainable — especially since demand for toilet paper has recently spiked.2,3
We need to tell Procter & Gamble to use recycled content, not virgin forest, to manufacture its tissue products.
The boreal forest is too precious to lose.
The Canadian boreal is, quite simply, a forest we can’t afford to lose — especially if we’re trading it for toilet paper.
Spanning the upper half of our continent, its old-growth trees suck enough carbon from the atmosphere to offset 24 million cars each year.4
Billions of migratory birds nest in these trees’ boughs. Forest caribou, Canadian lynx, bears, martens and families of wolves pad the forest floor beneath their shade, as they’ve done for thousands of years.
These trees are disappearing at a rate of one and a half football fields every single minute.5
Take action to protect this irreplaceable forest.
American company Procter & Gamble continues to drive the demand that’s clear-cutting the boreal by sourcing wood pulp for its Charmin and Bounty brands from the forest’s virgin, old-growth trees. They use virgin forest fiber, despite calls to use existing, more sustainable alternatives, because it makes the softer tissue that they believe their customers prefer.6
If you use tissue products (we assume you do), then take a second now to show P&G that it’s wrong. Sign our petition asking P&G to make their paper products from more sustainable sources.
There exist materials for creating tissue products that are far less damaging than wood, like wheat straw, bamboo and recycled materials. Other well-regarded companies are already using them.7,8
It should be obvious, but P&G needs to hear it from the folks that might be their customers: The convenience and softness of three-ply tissue is not worth the loss of a forest that’s home to billions of creatures, and that keeps the world’s climate in balance.
- Ryan Flanagan, “How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada’s boreal forest,” CTV News, February 26, 2019.
- Adrian Humphreys, “U.S. plush toilet paper use wiping out Canada’s forests, flushing away the future: report,” Vancouver Sun, February 26, 2019.
- Marc Fisher, “Flushing out the true cause of the global toilet paper shortage amid coronavirus pandemic,” The Washington Post, April 7, 2020.
- Ryan Flanagan, “How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada’s boreal forest,” CTV News, February 26, 2019.
- Ryan Flanagan, “How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada’s boreal forest,” CTV News, February 26, 2019.
- Adrian Humphreys, “U.S. plush toilet paper use wiping out Canada’s forests, flushing away the future: report,” Vancouver Sun, February 26, 2019.
- Adrian Humphreys, “U.S. plush toilet paper use wiping out Canada’s forests, flushing away the future: report,” Vancouver Sun, February 26, 2019.
- “Issue with Tissue” Sustainability Scorecard Flunks Charmin and Other Toilet Paper Brands,” Business Wire, February 20, 2019.