ON A ROLL

Photo: Some people will go to great lengths to protect their loo roll.

WHAT A PONG
There was a serious pollution issue recently in Buncrana. People fishing along the shore near Swan Park were forced to cut their evening short because of the stink coming from the water. One man said he even had to wash out his fishing line when he got home because the smell was still on it. The reason for this unfortunate event was that the sewage treatment plant appeared to have dumped some effluent into the water on the coastline, which apparently they are allowed to do under certain circumstances. Arguments are ongoing. Some comment that there is no point carrying on with the development of the housing estates in the town if the infrastructure isn’t in place to cope with it. I don’t know about you but it makes me a bit wary of either swimming or eating fish that is caught and one or two tourists on the park were beating a hasty retreat as they couldn’t stand the pong either! This brings me nicely to this weeks topic…toilet rolls.

TOILET ROLLS
The World Wildlife Fund say that manufacturers of toilet paper are not doing enough to save native trees and forests The global conservation organization says this clearly contributes to the wasteful use of forests, at a time when they are threatened worldwide. The report analysed the practices of the five largest European tissue manufacturers – Procter and Gamble, SCA, Kimberly Clark, Metsa Tissue, and Georgia Pacific – which together supply about 70 per cent of the European market. It found that the vast majority of tissue products these companies are selling to European households contain alarmingly low levels of recycled fibres. As a result high-quality virgin fibres are taken directly from natural forests and plantations around the world, including Latin America, Canada, the US, South Africa, Russia, Asia and Europe, and end up as waste without the consumer’s knowledge. The European tissue business is worth around €8.5 billion annually and accounts for 26 per cent of global tissue consumption, with each European using 13kg – the equivalent of approximately 22 billion rolls of toilet paper. Everyday about 270,000 trees are effectively flushed down the toilet or end up as rubbish around the world. Toilet paper and towels in offices, schools and hotels are mostly made out of recycled fibres, and there is no reason why it should be any different for the same products that are sold in supermarkets, WWF says. Manufacturers argue that retailers mainly want non-recycled products because this is what consumers are asking for. I find that very hard to believe myself as we all know that recycled products are just as good as the new.

According to WWF, the companies also need to better inform consumers about the recycled content of their products. Consumers should not be misled by recycling symbols on tissue packaging, which often only refer to the wrapping paper, and not to the product itself. WWF recommends that consumers look and ask for the few recycled tissue brands currently produced by the five major manufacturers as well as brands from smaller companies for which recycled products are a niche market. Consumers should also ask shops and supermarkets to stock recycled tissues. The report also warns that unsustainable timber harvesting; illegal logging and land right conflicts still exist in many of the countries from where the virgin fibres are sourced. Pressure on the manufacturer seems to be working and all of the mentioned companies say that they are concentrating more effort into recycled products. Keep a look out on the toilet rolls you buy and make sure it says 100% recycled. That should speed things up a bit!

SEED DISTRIBUTION
An Australian company have come up with an ingenious way to help save the environment. Enviro-roll is an environmentally friendly and hygienic toilet paper made from recycled paper impregnated with native seed. The seeds are grown specifically in the country where the rolls will be sold. Therefore in Ireland the content will be totally different to the ones in any other country, I just hope they use small, soft seeds! The company are developing regional, and ecosystem specific seed mixes for each country. Indigenous, endemic and non-invasive are the key words, which is just as well. Money generated from every roll sold worldwide will be placed into an environmental fund so that environmental groups worldwide may apply for funding to restore river systems/watercourses and to clean up and repair toxic and denuded soils worldwide. The R.S.P.C.A. are to receive funding as well.

Environmental.