Environmental stickers don’t stick to the facts
March 21, 2013
I
n a girls’ bathroom near Little Theatre 161, there’s a green and white sticker on a paper towel dispenser that reads, “Remember…These come from trees.” It isn’t the only one; these stickers have appeared in bathrooms across San Diego State. They’ve spread throughout the U.S. to at least 14 other countries. Universities, airports, office buildings and schools are using these stickers to eliminate excess paper waste. However, the sticker makes a claim I find hard to believe: “This sticker will save up to 100 lbs. of paper every year.”
If each person who sees this sticker uses one less paper towel, lots of paper could be saved. But it’s outrageous to claim that one sticker can save 100 pounds of paper from one dispenser per year. In fact, the only field study for this claim was carried out in a single cafe bathroom in just one week.
The web address on the sticker leads to a blog written by creator Peter Kazanjy.
“A non-judgmental, helpful reminder at the moment of consumption can really help reduce down the amount of unintentional waste we produce,” Kazanjy wrote on the blog. He maintained the blog since he started the sticker project in February 2007. On the site, the stickers are available in various quantities, including a roll of 1,000 stickers for $149. It’s the buyer’s responsibility to place the stickers on any paper-dispensing machines they see fit.
The only study I found giving concrete evidence of paper towel conservation was the case of Hunt Valley Elementary School. This school reduced its paper towel use from 6,200 pounds to 1,800 pounds in one year by posting 50 of these stickers in its bathrooms. That means each of the 50 stickers saved about 88 pounds of paper towels, which is a lot, but not up to par with the 100-pound claim. This equates to an $840 reduction in janitorial supply costs and supposedly saved 18 trees.
However, those trees weren’t doomed to become pulp for bathroom paper towels. According to an article in Stanford Magazine, paper towels are “generally made from recycled paper.” Despite how much Kazanjy would like to blame paper towels for killing trees, most of those paper towels were papers of other kinds long before they made it to bathroom dispensers. “If recycled materials were not used, 3.5 tons of virgin wood would be needed in order to manufacture one ton of bathroom tissue,” according to Whole Building Design Guide’s Green Seal’s Report in 2004. That’s a whole lot more than what we really use because paper making fibers can be recycled five to seven times before it gets too small to even recycle, according to Stanford Magazine.
Unfortunately, those paper towels in bathroom dispensers have hit the end of the line. They are the last usable form of recycled paper before the paper fibers get too short to bond together and use again. Paper towels from bathrooms get thrown away because they are too hard to recycle, considering they are normally combined with other bathroom muck and germs that can survive the recycling process—which is one reason no one’s proposed recycling toilet paper.
The stickers have saved paper towels from use, yet they aren’t really saving trees the way they claim to. Those paper towels don’t come from trees. Most of them come from recycled paper, which doesn’t bode well for the myth about directly saving trees. Apparently, I’m not the only one who is skeptical about the sticker scheme. During the week I spent writing and researching this column, I watched as one bathroom sticker on a toilet paper receptacle was ripped, maimed and written on with preposterous claims that the toilet paper came from banana peels. The claim “These come from trees” is far-fetched and doesn’t hold up to the scrutiny of a public increasingly knowledgeable about conservation.
At least they reduce some sort of waste.
Let’s say, for the purpose of argument, that paper towels DO come from trees. They’re not cutting down old growth redwoods to make paper. They’re *farmed* trees. It’s like putting a sticker on bottles of corn oil that say “this comes from corn.”
Unless the campaign has some sort of issue with how tree farms are run, the basic idea behind the campaign that using paper is a bad thing is totally wrong-headed.
This articles makes me angry. So does the people that still debate global warming is a mith. What is your point? The blogger was 2 pounds off his calculation on how many pounds a year the stickers can save, therefore let’s not bother at all because this stickers and the intentions behind are worthless, and continue using tons of paper for no reason?
Your time might be more appreciated if spend towards trying to solve problems rather than trying to diss those that at least are making an effort.
Paper, whether recycled or not, originally comes from trees.
Farmed trees or not, the energy used in the processing and shipping contributes to carbon emissions. Reduction in paper use = reduction in emissions.
So, the 100 lb claim should be dismissed because there was only one study. But the 88 lb. claim is completely valid because that was the conclusion determined from one location? Hmmm…where’s the logic? It’s the exact same thing. How is the study at the elementary school so much more valid?
Now lets run with the 88 lb. claim anyway. It’s still 88 lbs. of trash per dispenser that would be reduced. It was a reduction of 71%! That means they only used 29% of the paper towels that they used to. That is a substantial impact. So even if the facts fall short of the 100 lb claim, the impact that the stickers make cannot be ignored. Would we be happier if the stickers instead boasted the claim that it saves 71% of paper towel waste?
And continuing on with the 88 lbs, it would still be 88 lbs less trash per dispenser. Multiplied by the number of paper towel dispensers across the world. And don’t think that they’ll just magically decompose as most trash is buried in landfills, which are completely sealed off preventing any type of decomposition.
The claim that it is paper at the end of the line is a true and valid point, as well is the idea that they are farmed trees. However, more paper towels are more resources dedicated to waste. This ranges from the land area used to farm the trees to the emission of CO2, NOx, SOx, and particulate matter released into the air through harvesting, production, and transportation.
The point of the stickers is for conservation. Anybody can attack a specified claim for being imprecise. But we need to look at the big picture. Instead of focusing our energy on criticizing technicalities, lets turn our focus on how to make progress. It’s sad that people are so offended at the idea of these stickers and their goal that they must tear them off of the dispensers, deface them, and write articles about how wrong they are. Why must we be so afraid of change?
By the way…unless there are different stickers out there, the ones that I have seen make the claim that they will “…save up to 100 lbs…” meaning that 100 lbs. is the maximum that they will save, but they may not reach that much. So, in other words, the 88 lbs fits exactly in line with their claim.
It might still make sense to try and recycle paper towels, not the toilet paper. Those are two different things I believe. Paper towels are thrown very often after wiping clean hands after washing. And they can be recycled and made into paper towels again. Or they can be rolled as cloth towels and cleaned. I have liked the idea of stickers. The very least they can do, to make people think about where all paper comes from. Most people do not think and do not know where things come from originally to them. It is not supermarkets.
Does anyone know of any other sticker options that remind people to reduce consumption, but don’t make the same potentially problematic claim?
Oy Vey!
The whole point is to get people to *think* before mindlessly ripping 3 paper towels out of a dispenser, when 1 will do the job.
Everyone is so quick to point out errors these days. I believe the sticker says, “up to” 100 lbs.
Stop being such a freaking nit picker. Just pay attention to the bigger picture….if you can get over your self-importance!
I agree with the other comments on this post; get over yourself, stop over analyzing a cause that’s supporting conservation, and maybe instead of hiding behind a computer, add some value to the world you live in.
Hi. I think these stickers are a positive thing because they get people to think on what they’re doing. Also, whatever we focus on is what gets bigger in one’s life. For example, if one focus’ on learning a musical instrument then that will become a bigger part of their lives. Same with how we think. If we want to find the negative in something, we can. If we often do that, then we have negative mind. This is not conducive for happiness, our own and others. It is often a habit. If we encourage others (even if not perfect, but intention is for the good) then more positive mindset and more positive actions able to manifest in the world. We are all in this together. Often, if we look, it’s our own mind that gets in the way.
How many trees were used to make the stickers?