Does the average American use 130 rolls of toilet paper a year? Is 15% of global deforestation due to toilet paper?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some statistics we read are merely crap. An article in the Spring 2015 World Wildlife Magazine titled Price of Toilet Paper for the Planet claims:

 

“30 POUNDS: Average amount of toilet paper used by Americans per capita in a year. That’s roughly 130 rolls. The U.S. is the world’s biggest buyer of toilet paper.”

 

But my rolls of Scott 1000s shown above each weigh 0.413 pounds, so 30 pounds would correspond to just 73 rolls. Right on the package it says a roll lasts a week, so I’d more likely use 52 rolls per year rather than 130.

 

An old article by Joan Reinhardt Reiss in E: The Environmental Magazine on May 15, 2009 titled The Toilet Paper Problem stated that:

 

“According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), deforestation is the single greatest cause of global warming, and toilet tissue is responsible for 15% of all deforestation.”

 

Similar 15% claims have been stated since then. For example, an article by Kaitlyn Wylde at Futurism on November 9, 2017 is titled 15% of deforestation is due to toilet paper alone. Here’s how we can fix this.

 

The BBC Radio 4 program More or Less: Behind the Statistics for January 21, 2023 was titled Does toilet paper cause 15% of global deforestation? They described how:

 

“A British company has claimed that the production and use of toilet paper is responsible for 15% of deforestation globally. We investigate the claim and ask what the true environmental cost of toilet paper is. Charlotte McDonald talks to climate change scientist Professor Mary Gagen, chief adviser on forests to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the WWF.”

 

That company, Sirius, directed them to a 2019 report from the Natural Resources Defense Council – which does not contain that 15%. Presumably it was one titled The Issue with Tissue, which can be downloaded as a 31-page .pdf file. (There also is a June 2020 follow-up report titled The Issue with Tissue 2.0: How the tree-to-toilet pipeline affects our climate crisis, which doesn’t have that number either. The latest from NRDC is in an article by Jennifer Skene and Shelley Vinyard on September 13, 2022 also titled The Issue with Tissue).

 

Ms. Gagen suggested that the 15% likely was instead from a 10 to 14% for the entire pulp and paper industry. When the BBC contacted Sirius they said they were going to revise their radio ads to use another statistic they could back up for marketing.