Tell Costco: This forest is worth more than toilet paper. Add Your Name:
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Friend,
Why are we cutting down one of the planet's most important forest ecosystems to make toilet paper?
Housing some of North America's most iconic animals, Canada's boreal forest is also a crucial carbon sink that absorbs planet-warming carbon from our atmosphere. But too often, this forest's trees are being chopped down to make something that we'll use once and then flush down the toilet.
We're calling on Costco -- a major producer and distributor of paper bathroom products -- to commit to stocking and selling more forest-friendly paper products.
Tell Costco that the boreal forest is worth more than toilet paper.
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This forest ecosystem is crucial to humans and wildlife alike.
It's the largest intact forest ecosystem on the planet. As a result, it provides shelter to all sorts of wildlife, from the smallest hares to the largest wood bison -- from the birds sheltering in its canopy to the beavers sleeping in their dams.[1]
And these animals aren't all that live in the boreal forest. These woods are also home to 600 Indigenous communities, whose very way of life is threatened by logging.[2]
And on a global scale, this forest is a crucial resource. The boreal's trees help combat climate change by capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in their trunks and roots. In this way, the forest is estimated to remove enough carbon to offset the emissions of roughly 24 million passenger vehicles annually.[3]
This place is irreplaceable. And sadly, it's disappearing all too quickly.
Every year, more than 1 million acres of the boreal forest are impacted by logging. That's an area of forest larger than the state of Rhode Island.[4]
Perhaps most tragically, much of the lumber logged from this forest gets chipped, pulped and made into toilet paper.
We shouldn't sacrifice wild places as important as the boreal -- least of all for something that we'll use once and then flush away.
But Costco can be a leader in protecting this crucial ecosystem. Urge Costco to phase out paper products from the boreal forest.
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America leads the planet in toilet paper consumption.
Every year, the average American will use 141 rolls of toilet paper -- about twice the rate of consumption in countries like Italy and France.[5]
Costco is one major provider of toilet paper. Every year, the company sells a billion rolls of toilet paper. Stacked on top of each other, those rolls would stand as tall as 240,000 Empire State Buildings.[6]
Rather than relying on wood taken from the boreal forest, other companies have shown that toilet paper can be produced from sustainable alternatives, such as recycled paper, bamboo and even wheat straw.[7] Most recently, Procter & Gamble, the maker of Charmin, Bounty and Puffs, has launched new bamboo toilet paper.[8]
Costco has the power to make that change too. That's why we're telling Costco to make its Kirkland Signature tissue products from at least 50% recycled or forest-free materials by 2025 and refuse to sell other brands of tissue products until they make the same change.
But to get the company to change, we'll need to stand and act together.
Will you join us in calling on Costco to protect the boreal forest?
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Thank you,
Ellen Montgomery
1. "12 animals that live in boreal forests," Wildlife Informer, last accessed September 30, 2022.
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2. Ryan Flanagan, "How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada's boreal forest," CTV News, February 26, 2019.
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3. Ryan Flanagan, "How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada's boreal forest," CTV News, February 26, 2019.
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4. Ryan Flanagan, "How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada's boreal forest," CTV News, February 26, 2019.
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5. Ryan Flanagan, "How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada's boreal forest," CTV News, February 26, 2019.
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6. "Costco is trading the boreal forest for toilet paper," Environment America, December 15, 2021.
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7. "Costco is trading the boreal forest for toilet paper," Environment America, December 15, 2021.
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8. Ellen Montgomery, "Procter & Gamble moves in the right direction with bamboo toilet paper," Environment America, September 30, 2022.
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