My sister came up with this idea of buying and testing out different household paper products that are made with post-consumer content. In other words, they are made with paper that you threw in the recycle box. This is good because it closes the cycle in recycling. I mean, why recycle paper if you don’t actually make something of the products and purchase and use them? Where else is all of our recycled paper supposed to go?

Here are some other reasons why it’s good (printed on the back of the Seventh Generation packaging):

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one 4-pack of 400 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissue with 100% recycled ones, we could save:

• 1,450,000 trees
• 3.7 million cubic feet of landfill space, equal to over 5,500 full garbage trucks
• 523 million gallons of water, a year’s supply for over 4,100 families of four
• and avoid 89,000 pounds of chlorinated pollution

So I bought the ones that seem to be the most convenient for me, basically, from local stores. They were: 365 (Whole Foods), Trader Joe’s, and Seventh Generation.

Trader Joe’s and Seventh Generation are both made with a minimum 80% post-consumer content; 365 only 40% minimum. None of them use chlorine bleach.

Left is TJ’s, center Seventh Generation, right 365. Notice how thin the 365 roll is? It’s loosely rolled up too.

Here’s the verdict:
365 feels rough and scratchy. I don’t plan on buying this torture device in the future. On top of that, I bought the large 24-roll pack to save on packaging and I find 8 4-roll packages inside which defeats the purpose of bulk packaging. These are also the smallest rolls with only 180 2-ply sheets per roll.

Seventh Generation is nice. I’d buy this again. It’s the most like standard bathroom tissue. It’s also the biggest roll with 400 2-ply sheets per roll.

Trader Joe’s is softer than 365 and it’s sturdy. That’s probably the one thing I’ve noticed about these products versus traditional bathroom tissue, they don’t tear as easily. Trader Joe’s is probably the strongest. I think in the future, I’m going to stick to this one because it’s the most convenient for me to buy.  I go to TJ’s fairly often.   250 2-ply sheets per roll.

On the left with the butterfly and flower prints is TJ’s, center is Seventh Generation, and right is 365. Don’t be fooled by the heart prints. They don’t love your butt.