It’s quantity, not quality that mucks up septic tanks, although, because of our rural conditions down here, there are brands that advertise as good for septic tanks.

We’ve always had dry wells for the shower and washing machine, using the septic tank for the toilet and sinks, so capacity has never been a problem.

I have a well, would not think of using the soft stuff.
.-= last blog ..PA Progressive Summit – January 2010 =-.

Ohhhh… And I thought that was what their custom made cotton shirts with the long shirt tails was for! Doh!

I thought the ties were for lunch… catching the food they drop, and wiping their mouths after.

Ya learn something every day!

If they grew a bit longer, there would be pine nuts, but most are harvested before there is any significant production. A little variety would not only help with habitat it would also slow or prevent infestations from spreading. Alas they are treated like any other crop.

Fallenmonk, I last spent significant time overseas in the 1970s, so I assume things have gotten better. Actually the existence of toilet paper in Asia is a vast improvement over the conditions I was used to from the Med to the Pacific. I was there in the days of ditches and “bombsights”.

That’s probably why politicians still wear ties, Steve.

But these tree farms still are a damn sight different from old growth forests. Nobody cuts down old growth to make toilet paper, that lumber is far too valued as construction lumber because it’s much harder and much more resistant to insect and fungus damage than new-growth lumber, not to mention you can cut much longer timbers out of it because it’s taller. The yahoos talking about “old growth toilet paper” are full of shit. Period.

– Badtux the Timber Penguin

The whole thing is kind of silly. Tissue manufacturing is almost a closed look process. Trees are harvested and replanted and in the interim provide excellent wildlife habitat. Most of the pulp for the tissue is mechanically produced and not ‘digested’ with chemicals and even those that are digested are done so in a closed loop with the extracted lignin used for fuel to produce the steam for the rest of the process. Modern papermaking is a fairly benign thing when it comes to the environment.
.-= last blog ..Pissing Off the Liberals Because They Can =-.

The property of the St Joe Paper Company, trash pine that is harvested like any other crop, and replanted.

They started as turpentine plantations and when that died, as lumber, and now as pulp. The other native species of pines and live oaks are not replanted. Between about ten miles from the coast to 100 miles inland you have pulp pine, broken up only by state and national forests that actually have diversity, and would reseed the area if they aren’t replanted after harvesting.

They are owned by the big paper companies, and are the primary source for paper production.

St Joe has shifted in some degree to real estate development, but that is only in the coastal zone, not their large interior pulp forests.