Greenpeace Gets Verbal Ass-Kicking Over Ancient Forest Toilet Paper

When it comes to any sort of environmental initiative, it’s usually Greenpeace that’s complaining that the effort is just not enough. They’re often purists, demanding more than people are willing to give, out of a noble sense of urgency and responsibility. But after they suspended a recent campaign to stop Canada’s ancient boreal forests from being cut down for toilet paper, one ecologist says Greenpeace gave in too easily.

Dr. Glen Barry, environmental sustainability policy expert and founder of Ecological Internet, sent out a press release entitled ‘Greenpeace Wipes It’s Soft, Virgin Butt with Canada’s Ancient Boreal Forests’:

Greenpeace’s long-standing campaign against “ancient forest crimes” by Kimberly-Clark was suspended on the basis of promises that 40% of its North American tissue fiber will be either recycled or FSC certified by 2011. The company traditionally has used 3 million tones of virgin fibre a year, which will fall to 2.4 million tons if they are successful. This atrociously weak target will legitimize continued destruction of Canada’s ancient forest ecosystems for throw away paper products for decades.

“In a world well past its carrying capacity, facing abrupt climate change and species and ecosystem collapse, we call upon Greenpeace to immediately disclose the ecological science that suggests primary and old growth forests can and should continue to be clearcut to wipe our asses,” questions Dr. Glen Barry. “It is just like Greenpeace to half carry out a campaign, achieve partial success, claim victory and move onto a more telegenic protest opportunity to fill their coffers.”

Ecological Internet calls upon Greenpeace to embrace substance over style (for a change) and immediately disassociate itself from the Forest Stewardship Council’s ongoing certification of first time industrial logging of primary forests as being “well-managed” while implying sustainability.

“No one including Greenpeace can tell us how many tens of millions of hectares of primeval forest ecosystems are being destroyed under FSC’s certification label for, amongst other things, toilet paper and lawn furniture. Until Greenpeace and friends stop greenwashing FSC ancient forest logging, we call upon committed forest protectors to resign their membership from Greenpeace and other ancient forest logging apologists, and to stop using virgin toilet paper, no matter how sensitive their behinds,” explains Dr. Barry.

Wow. It’s not often that Greenpeace is accused of not being tough enough on environmentally irresponsible companies. They’re known for being among the biggest hardasses in the world of environmental activism, yelling “bigger, faster, more” like a drill sergeant when companies take baby steps toward better practices.

But Dr. Barry has one-upped them, saying “There is no such thing as ecologically sustainable or even mildly beneficial first time industrial primary forest logging, and Greenpeace should be ashamed of itself for legitimizing the trade. If you support Greenpeace, you support ancient forest logging that endangers our shared being.”

Judge for yourself at Greenpeace’s Kleercut campaign website.

Link [Greenpeace] + [Forests.org]
Photo credit: Greenpeace

DIY: Make An Eco-Friendly Valentine’s Day Card

This Valentine’s Day,  give your special someone a gift that’s personal and eco-friendly. In this video, New-York based artist/designer Shiho Masuda shows you how to transform a mailing envelope and magazine pages into a 3-D Valentine’s Day card.

The 5 Best Kinds of Tree-Free Paper

Try as we may to cut back our use of paper as much as possible, we still need to use it from time to time. Luckily, you don’t have to be responsible for cutting down trees in order to do so. Planet Green has compiled a list of the 5 best types of tree-free paper, made from materials both familiar (hemp) and strange (elephant poop).

The use of virgin trees for paper continues to be a major environmental problem. Half the trees cut down in the US every year are used for paper, and for every tree cut down, only half can be turned into wood pulp, the substance used to make paper. By using these alternatives instead, you can keep from being part of the problem.

From Planet Green, via The Huffington Post:

Elephant Poop Paper
Elephant poop always makes for a good way to kick off a list, and here it’s likely the most intriguing way to get treeless paper. See, elephants have vegetarian diets, making their dung rich in cellulose—prime paper making material. They also happen to unload around 500 pounds of it every day, making the stuff plentiful and renewable. And elephant poop paper is already being marketed—you can get yours from Pixxlz or Mr. Ellie Pooh. It should be noted that panda poop paper is in the works, too.

Kenaf Paper
Kenaf is a hibiscus plant originally from Africa. It’s fast growing, and an acre of kenaf can produce 11 tons of paper-friendly fiber. By way of comparison, an acre of pine trees can take up to 10 years to be harvest ready, and would produce only around half the paper product. Vision Paper is a premier seller of kenaf paper products.

Sugar Cane Paper
There are a world of reasons to opt for sugar cane paper. It’s made from bagasse, which is the residue left over in the cane plant after the sugar has been extracted. So it’s created from a surplus byproduct, which is good news; and so is the fact that it’s 100 percent biodegradable. It’s also readily available—companies like the Sugar Cane Paper Company and TreeFree Paper already supply the goods.

Bamboo Paper
Bamboo may be a rising star in the treeless paper world: as a crop, it requires extremely little water to maintain, and it has natural anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties that make preserving it easier. While not widely available as a printer paper variety, you can get Bamboo stationary from the folks at Smock.

Hemp Paper
We all might associate hemp with a certain less-productive pastime than writing, but the crop has nonetheless turned out to be a contender for tree-free paper creation. Hemp is one of the most versatile crops, and perhaps if we could ever shake its pot smoke and reggae addled image, we’d see more products like this hemp sketchbook by Green Field Paper.

Link [Planet Green] via [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Aquabee Tree-Free Paper, Blick Art Materials

Salay Handmade Paper Puts Weeds to Good Use

Weeds are an annoyance for gardeners, but they do occasionally come in handy. The inhabitants of Mindanao in the Philippines came up with an ingenious – and beautiful – way to use the weeds that were popping up among the crafts in their fields.  They collect cogon grass and turn it into cards, albums, picture frames and other paper items.

From EcoSalon:

Before this non-governmental organization was formed, the inhabitants of Mindanao had endured dire financial difficulties throughout years of political unrest. In response to this crisis, entrepreneur Loreta Rafisura founded the People’s Economic Council, consisting of only ten supporters at the time, to provide these disadvantaged people with steady employment. After discovering the surplus of cogon grass, PEC experimented with methods to make use of this pesky weed, and the rest is history.

When you hear about things like this, it’s difficult to understand why we’re still cutting down trees just to make paper that will most likely be used once and then thrown away. It seems so incredibly wasteful.

Check out the collection of Salay handmade paper products over at fair trade retailer Ten Thousand Villages.

Link [EcoSalon] + [Ten Thousand Villages]

Stop the Junk Mail Monster!

Most everyone hates junk mail but do you know the extent to which it destroys forests and wastes your time? According to the nonprofit ForestEthics, every year more than 100 billion pieces of junk mail—almost 900 pieces per household—arrive in American mailboxes. Here are some facts from their website:

Junk mail in America accounts for about 30% of all the mail delivered in the world and more than 100 million trees a year are logged to produce it. Almost half of junk mail goes to landfills unopened, yet Americans still spend eight months of their lives dealing with it. The Canadian Boreal Forest and Indonesian tropical forest—both play a vital role in protecting us from the effects of global warming—are being destroyed to supply paper to this wasteful industry.

Did you read that people? Eight months wasted by opening, stacking, tearing up and throwing out junk mail! This has got to end. Do your part to stop junk mail by signing the petition at donotmail.org.

Did you know? Greenhouse gases created each year by junk mail are the annual equivalent of:

-9,372,000 average passenger cars

-11 coal-fired power plants

-Heating 12.9 million homes

-Mowing more than 20 billions lawns

[via ForestEthics]

Paper that Erases Itself After 24 Hours Debuts at WIRED NextFest

Xerox debuted an innovation that might just save paper from becoming a relic of less than eco-friendly times at WIRED NextFest, which is taking place in Chicago until October 12th.  It’s paper that self-erases within 24 hours, and can be re-used again and again. Studies have shown that 40% of paper gets discarded on the day it was produced, and despite the availability of new technology and tips for using less paper in the office, most companies still use paper at an astounding rate.

From Treehugger:

The catch is that you can’t just use regular ink for it to work. You need a certain type of light:

The “a-ha” moment came from developing compounds that change color when they absorb a certain wavelength of light but then will gradually disappear. In its present version, the paper self-erases in about 16-24 hours and can be used multiple times.

You can also erase the page faster by exposing it to heat.

The scientists at PARC (the place that invented the laser printer) are working on a new type of printer that could print with the right type of light.

It’s still a research project, so it won’t be for sale for a while still.  A Treehugger commenter also points out the waste that would be produced when thousands of companies switched over to the new special printers required. Still, it’s a step in the right direction.  We need to start thinking this way, in terms of reducing waste and preserving resources.

Link [Treehugger]