As soon as I turned the corner and decided to do some self -auditing about my life, I did what so many people do. I started to think about where I could get greener, what areas were gray and where I was willing to budge. This type of cause auditing is an examination of sacrifice – Greenvenience- how hard is this going to be? Pragmactivism- is it practical?And oh boy can it be overwhelming even paralyzing and when you start to look at your life and where you are willing to budge (or not), you see some pretty interesting things pop up. I am that consumer- the one who was buying all of my produce and meats and dairy at Whole Foods but schlepping to Costco for things like toilet paper, diapers, and cases of Vita water. The one buying a Terra Pass and still driving up the road to the grocery store.

And so, my first big change was: toilet paper. The average roll of toilet paper, in an average household, in the most-used bathroom of the house lasts approximately five days. Consumers use approximately 8.6 sheets of paper per toilet use. This is a total of 57 sheets per day and 20,805 sheets per year (42 rolls of two-ply or 21 rolls of one-ply). So…

I changed our toilet paper to recycled (and have since found that Trader Joe’s is a good bargain and less scratchy than others) It took our family a few weeks to adjust to the 100% recycled toilet paper – it isn’t very white or soft but a year into it, we’re all used to it. It is odd to note that public bathrooms sometimes offer up softer toilet paper than my house does, so be it. My one wish is for the recycled toilet paper producers to offer some praise to semi-greenies for making the switch. If I’m going to pay more for scratchy toilet paper (and to save trees!) why don’t the toilet paper sheets have “100% recycled” screened into them? My guests would know why their tushies don’t get the royal treatment at our house and I’d get a bit of green ego stroking. Is it so wrong to want recognition for a green deed?

Look here to find out how environmental the supposed green toilet paper brands are as ranked by the NRDC.

More to come: The Green Decision Tree: organic vs. local, cloth vs. disposable diapers, phathalates and plastic paralysis, what to do with all of my tupperware, why use eco friendly dishwashing detergent if it doesn’t work? etc. etc.