How Paper Harms Wildlife & How You Can Help

We have all heard about how bidets provide excellent hygiene for humans, but how many people have thought about the positive impacts on animals?

A bidet can greatly reduce the toilet paper that is needed when you use the bathroom and this can be very beneficial to the environment. When packaging, transportation, and other additional factors for toilet paper are calculated into the cost of not using a bidet can be very high for the environment. The bleaching process used to manufacture toilet paper is very damaging to the earth, people, and animals. Bleaching produces a byproduct called dioxin which is a cancer causing substance in humans and animals, and chlorine products are also used which leave behind toxins in the toilet paper and harm the earth. A bidet is a more environmentally friendly choice.

Aside from harmful chemicals, there is the issue of deforestation. Toilet paper is made from trees after all. In short, harmful impacts included with deforestation are how it affects animal habitats, global warming, and local communities. There is a trend in some regions toward illegal or unsustainable logging, the poisoning of the environment via toxic chemicals and bleaching, huge impacts on landfills, exorbitant water use in manufacturing, and other related consequences. However, it is not enough to stop the negative impacts on wildlife. More positive solutions are needed.

Positive environmental impacts tend to focus on how to minimize the consequences of those harmful factors. By ensuring that products are made from certified sustainably managed forests, purchasing products made with a high recycled content, buying products with no colored print and with minimal bleaching, and switching to a bidet seat, are all ways to look out for our animal friends.

Paper making is incredibly water-intensive. Even if water used by a mill is locally sourced, rather than drawn from a municipal system, the effluent from paper production invariably finds its way back into the environment. That means a flood of organic waste and chemical residue which must be processed or, worse yet absorbed, after being treated and dumped into some unlucky river or ocean. All wildlife needs water, and the water they drink, if contaminated, leads to detrimental consequences. Contaminated water also has a negative impact on all vegetation, which many animals consume as a food source.

Switching from toilet paper to a bidet is an easy way to assist with the well being and health of all animals. This is their earth too.