What kind of toilet paper do you use? Maybe an alternative?
Both of our bathrooms have two rolls each: one "nice" roll, soft, 2- or 3-ply, white or colored, with flowers, whatever. The second is a roll of recycled paper. The recycled is for the Wife and myself, the other is for Dad-in-law and guests. I don't like the "nice" paper for many reasons:
- It's more expensive,
- It gets soft and squishy and tears,
- Has less or no recycled content,
- Production requires chemicals for bleaching and/or coloring.
I also use the rolls of recycled paper for nose blowing, as I dislike the smell and texture of the soft, white tissues.
During communist times, toilet paper was not easy to come by (actually, nothing was). One of the few ways to get a handful of rolls was to collect newspapers and take them to the recycling center. If you were lucky (and knew the right people), you got a big (paper, not plastic!) bag of toilet paper rolls. I remember seeing cars with trunks and rear seats filled to the roof with rolls, hurrying home, with a "I can't wait till the family sees what I was able to get" expression on the driver's face. Today people go to the huge 'hipermarkets', were there is a whole isle of paper products, all of them soft, nice, strong, in colorful boxes or bags. People don't care where the paper came from or what chemicals were used in its production, what's important is that the paper be light green to match the tiles in the bathroom.
Sorry for the rant.