Low-impact living: Every year, Europeans are responsible for the routine felling, pulping and then discarding of around 70,000 trees.
Now who would do such a thing? Well, actually, it might be you and me. Not to mince words, every time you send a clump of toilet paper whooshing around the U-bend, you may well be liable for the destruction of a bit of tree.
According to a recent Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) report, we in Europe consume 26 per cent of the global output of tissues and toilet paper, an industry that eats up 270,000 trees annually.
In some parts of the world there's little demand for toilet paper. People wash themselves with water after answering the call of nature, and, in fact, find the idea of using paper downright unhygienic. Cultural differences being what they are, most of us baulk at the idea of changing to a paperless operation, so we remain firmly wedded to toilet tissue.
But does it have to come straight from the tree? Recycled paper takes 30 to 50 per cent less energy to manufacture, and causes far less air pollution. Every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees. A certain amount of sludge is created when it is de-inked, washed and screened, but this waste is disposed of in a controlled manner, rather than being scattered willy-nilly in landfills, as would happen if the paper were just thrown out.
Your toilet paper should be recycled and even better unbleached, because some bleaching processes are chlorine-based and release dioxins into the environment. Recycled toilet tissue is available in most supermarkets, but the unbleached variety is more difficult to find. You can get it in eco shops, and sometimes in Lidl, or so I've been told.
Almost all "virgin" toilet paper is bleached, because otherwise it would be a soft beige colour, just like the wood from which it is made. Wouldn't that be nice and homey? And a lot better, if you ask me, than the newest thing, made by Portuguese company, Renova. Its toilet paper, marketed as "Fashionable, Sensual, Sophisticated, Fun, Unique!" is black. You may also buy it in fire-engine red, or Halloween orange - for more than €2 a roll. Not me, though. I like mine green.