A Case of TP

Sitting on the middle of my living room floor right now is large box (a case) of Seventh Generation Bathroom Tissue. Why would one single woman need to buy a whole case of bathroom tissue, you might wonder. Well…That is a very good question. Of course, the answer is: “She wouldn’t unless she is expecting (1) a large number of house guests (2) a very bad winter (3) a very bad bout of …well never mind, she just wouldn’t under normal circumstances. She would, however, if she has a tendency to, on occasion, become just slightly neurotic about recycling. And, if she found herself plopped down in the middle of a county that is at least 20 years behind the rest of the universe (or maybe just the US) on environmental issues. And, if she got so fed up with the lack of recycling and/or recycled products available in said county that, after trying several times to purchase toilet paper made from recycled paper, she went on some neurotic binge and ordered a case of toilet paper from the one and only store in the county that might understand her only to be told by the boy-manager of said store that “That’s some expensive toilet paper!”

Now I fully understand that recycling is just one part (and the last, maybe even least important part) of the ol’ recycling triangle (reduce, reuse, recycle) and that there are certainly bigger environmental fish to fry, BUT (and it is such a big but – and let me tell you, I know a thing or two about big buts) I am convinced that there is a direct correlation between the amount of recycling that a person and/or community does and the level of environmental protection and activism in which a person and/or community engages.

Case in point…Utah County, Utah. There is no recycling program here at all (other than bins in the school yards for recycling newspaper – wow!) and I can see very little else being done for the environment, either. In fact, several big environmental issues seem to go unnoticed – such as the booming population issue (from having too many kids, not from people moving in) and the subsequent increase in sprawl, consumerism, and pollution and loss of habit, diversity, and open spaces. The desire for perfect green lawns and the contamination and waste of already scarce water is another issue. (I couldn’t believe how many people have irrigation systems in their yards here and I don’t want to think about all of the chemicals being sprayed on these lawns. It’s a desert, people, you’re not supposed to have green lawns!!!!!!!!)

OK, I’m starting off on a ranting tangent and that is not my point. My point is that I purchased a large quantity of very expensive toilet paper because it is the only way they’d sell it to me. I was told, “It’s too expensive and people just won’t buy it. We have some paper towels that have been here for over two years” (well, good, people should probably be using rags instead of paper towels anyway, but that’s for another rant). “I can order some Seventh Generation Bathroom Tissue for you, but you’d have to buy the whole case, ‘cause we can’t afford to stock things we don’t sell.” So I bought it. The whole case. To prove a point. To whom, I’m not sure. But buying this case of toilet paper felt like I was somehow taking a symbolic stand against all needless waste and all of the crappy things we keep doing to the planet. It was an expensive and probably meaningless stand, I admit, but, it felt like all I could do at the moment. At the very least, I’m now set for the winter or for any large group of guests that might visit or for any bout of … well, anyway, I’m set.