WaPo Highlights Anti-plush Toilet Paper Crusade on Front Page

The Washington Post may have trouble placing negative stories about Democratic gubernatorial candidates on the front-page, but the newspaper certainly can identify the important news items: Getting rid of plush toilet paper. Thursday’s Post gave prominent, A1 coverage to the latest crusade of environmental groups.

Staff writer David A. Fahrenthold observed, "It is a fight over toilet paper: the kind that is blanket-fluffy and getting fluffier so fast that manufacturers are running out of synonyms for ‘soft’..." He proclaimed, "It's a menace, environmental groups say -- and a dark-comedy example of American excess." Fahrenthold also described complaints against plush toilet paper as "the ultimate test of how green Americans will be when nobody's watching."

Such fancy products are produced by cutting down older trees. Environmentalists aparently "want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods." Although Fahrenthold adopted a slightly whimsical tone with his piece, how, exactly is this worthy of a front page story? Has the "battle for America’s behinds," according to the Post writer, really become such a big deal as to warrant front-page coverage? Fahrenthold himself admits in the story:

Toilet paper is far from being the biggest threat to the world's forests: together with facial tissue, it accounts for 5 percent of the U.S. forest-products industry, according to industry figures. Paper and cardboard packaging makes up 26 percent of the industry, although more than half is made from recycled products. Newspapers account for 3 percent.

But environmentalists say 5 percent is still too much.

Continuing the excretory theme, Friday’s Post reviewed No Impact Man, a documentary about Colin Beavan, an environmentalist who gave up using toilet paper for a year and had a film made about his exploits. And while critic John Anderson isn’t exactly enthralled by the "self-flagellating environmental activist," he does seem to admire his quest:

While Beavan isn't exactly the villain of the piece, he's the less sympathetic of the two, largely because his wife is us. She can't argue against the righteous morality of the project, and she's glad her husband has something he's excited about doing. But she's also missing her iced espressos, cabs and reality television. When the family's big-screen TV leaves the house, it does so with all the solemnity of grandma going to the hospice.

Toilet paper seems to be quite the obsession with some journalists. Weatherman/global warming alarmist Sam Champion has promoted the toilet paper-shunning Beavan four times over the last two years on Good Morning America.

Perhap’s Beavan’s aversion to such a product could be the solution for those who worry about the high cost of plush toilet paper? If the concept takes off, look for media outlets such as Good Morning America and the Washington Post for all the latest developments.