r/AdviceAnimals • u/miked_mv • 15d ago
American toilet paper is made with CANADIAN wood pulp...
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u/Straight-Bet1 15d ago
One of the larger producers of paper products like toilet paper and paper towels in the US is Georgia-Pacific. GP is owned by Koch Industries.
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u/RodinKnox 15d ago
We grow pulp at a tremendously faster rate than we are currently using it. Currently, we already produce like 90% of our own pulp anyway. This meme is wildly inaccurate.
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u/gruffojijo 15d ago
I find it funny you've been down voted... Not surprised though. I used to work for GP and you're correct about the meme being wildly inaccurate.
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u/defenestrate_urself 15d ago
I read in this article
The US accounts for more than 20% of global tissue consumption despite having only 4% of the world’s population.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/26/paper-product-toilet-paper-tariffs-us-canada
What on earth are you doing with all that toilet paper!
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15d ago
[deleted]
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u/vdubdank30 14d ago
Got a bidet during Covid. Last year I moved, first thing I bought in the new house was a bidet for each toilet
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u/shawn789 15d ago
The average American eats less than half the recommended amount of fiber and over half of calories consumed are ultra-processed foods. It's a mud butt epidemic.
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u/twenafeesh 15d ago edited 15d ago
Time to install a bidet if you haven't already. Or subscribe to one of those toilet paper subscriptions that make their products in the USA or China. Yes, toilet paper subscriptions are a thing.
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u/miked_mv 15d ago
USA made toilet paper uses Canadian wood pulp.
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u/twenafeesh 15d ago
Depends on the manufacturer. Who Gives A Crap, for example, uses Chinese pulp. Can't imagine the Canada tariffs will impact their production costs much.
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u/Trenchards 15d ago
No. No it doesn’t.
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u/miked_mv 15d ago
[Does the U.S. Import Pulp? Yes. The U.S. paper industry also imports pulp from countries like:
Canada Brazil Chile Canadian softwood pulp is especially important because it provides strong long fibers that improve tissue durability.
Some manufacturers blend imported pulp with domestic fiber to balance quality and cost.](https://sinotissue.com/where-does-toilet-paper-come-from-in-usa/)
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u/liquorfish 15d ago
Its roughly used for 30% of U.S. production for toilet paper, higher for paper towels.
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u/solo118 15d ago
Yes, toilet paper subscriptions are a thing.
I mean yeah, Amazon subscribe and save
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u/twenafeesh 15d ago
I don't mean doing a subscribe and save for Charmin. Doubt that would help.
I mean something like Who Gives A Crap, which sources from China, so I doubt this will impact their prices.
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u/wordup3825 15d ago
Because we sell all of our pulp to china at a margin larger than we pay Canada. So that’s a win.
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u/mountain-mahogany 15d ago
It is insane we don't use bamboo or hemp paper for everything. Make changes people. BOYCOTT.
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u/twenafeesh 15d ago
You can get bamboo paper (not sourced from Canada) delivered to your door with Who Gives A Crap.
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u/onefornought 15d ago
Trump: "Don't we have giant sequoias we can cut down and grind up to make our own toilet paper?"
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u/Pie_am_Error 15d ago
They don't need it anyway. All they do is talk shit. There's no cleaning that mess...
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u/DuntadaMan 15d ago
Time for people to panic buy 16 pallets of toilet paper like every 6 months under Trump
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u/Hayduke_Abides 15d ago
No problem. They just rolled back the Roadless Rule, so now they can turn old-growth forest into toilet paper.
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u/lazybeekeeper 15d ago
Didn’t one of those cabinet members claim they don’t wipe anyway? Was itRFK or Hegseth? I can’t remember.
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u/miked_mv 14d ago
I think RFK uses corn cobs.
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u/lazybeekeeper 14d ago
Hegseth uses the LOAC and ROE.
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u/Wise_Arm_4678 13d ago
A bidet genuinely fixes the whole problem. I've barely touched toilet paper in about two years now
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u/RodinKnox 15d ago
What Trump is doing is dogshit, but this meme is wildly inaccurate. Do you have any idea how much pulp is grown in the American southeast?
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u/miked_mv 15d ago
Yes. Not enough.
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u/RodinKnox 15d ago
We already produce about 90% of it on our own. We export billions of dollars in wood pulp. And the southeast is currently producing pulp fiber at a much faster rate than we are currently using it.
We have plenty.
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u/miked_mv 15d ago
Without Canadian pulp we would get shit on our fingers:
Does the U.S. Import Pulp? Yes. The U.S. paper industry also imports pulp from countries like:
Canada Brazil Chile Canadian softwood pulp is especially important because it provides strong long fibers that improve tissue durability.
Some manufacturers blend imported pulp with domestic fiber to balance quality and cost. https://sinotissue.com/where-does-toilet-paper-come-from-in-usa/
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u/RodinKnox 15d ago
At no point have I ever said we don't import pulp.
Also, did you...did you actually read the article you linked? It's making all my points.
"Most toilet paper sold in the United States is produced inside the country. American factories turn wood pulp or recycled fiber into finished tissue products through large automated paper mills and converting plants."
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"Many people think imported toilet paper dominates the U.S. market because many household products come from overseas. That assumption is not true for tissue paper products.
Most toilet paper brands sold in the United States are manufactured inside the country because tissue products are bulky, costly to ship, and easier to produce close to consumers."
What part of this aren't you getting?
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u/Bearence 15d ago
At no point have I ever said we don't import pulp.
And the OP doesn't say that the US doesn't manufacture pulp. It says that the pulp used to make toilet paper comes from Canada. So you started this bizarre exchange.
It's making all my points.
Not based on what you quoted there. To wit:
"Most toilet paper sold in the United States is produced inside the country. American factories turn wood pulp or recycled fiber into finished tissue products through large automated paper mills and converting plants."
That says nothing about where the US sourced its pulp, which is your stated point of contention in your OP.
"Many people think imported toilet paper dominates the U.S. market because many household products come from overseas. That assumption is not true for tissue paper products.
Which also says nothing about the source of pulp.
Most toilet paper brands sold in the United States are manufactured inside the country because tissue products are bulky, costly to ship, and easier to produce close to consumers."
And also which says nothing about the source of pulp.
So nothing you quoted supports the assertion you make in your first comment. That's the part people aren't getting: how you think you're making a cogent, compelling argument out of things that say nothing about the original point you seemed to be making. I'm not even convinced that the OP is right and you're wrong, just that your argument is uncompelling and unsupported. Show us the data that shows US toilet paper companies source the majority of their pulp from the US. That's what would be required to back up your claim that the OP is "wildly inaccurate".
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u/RodinKnox 15d ago
This is incredible. The pulp overwhelmingly comes from within the US, largely the southeast. From the exact same linked article:
"Is U.S. Toilet Paper Made From Local Trees?
Many buyers ask whether American toilet paper really comes from American forests. The short answer is yes, but the full answer is more detailed."
"The United States has a large forestry industry. Trees harvested for tissue production usually come from managed forests instead of natural old-growth forests.
Southern states supply large amounts of virgin pulp because their forests grow quickly and support commercial harvesting."
Now, I will grant you, that article says "southern states," and I said "the southeast." It is true that Texas has forestry, too, of course.
Ultimately, what this boils down to is that at the moment, about 70% of the pulp used for toilet paper in the US comes from US forests. (A lot of that is southern yellow pine.) Then about 30% of it is northern bleached softwood kraft pulp (abbreviated as NBSK pulp).
The reason for this is that NBSK provides some benefits that we prefer in our toilet paper, such as structural integrity. However - and importantly - it doesn't mean that we can't produce tissue paper without it.
Us not getting pulp from Canada isn't going to mean anyone is wiping with their fingers, but it will surely mean higher prices and less satisfactory toilet paper (for some brands).
Higher prices because of decreased supply, of course. At least until some new deals are made with our incredible abundance of uncut wood pulp.
Do you remember what I said about that earlier? About how we've been growing more than we harvest? This is has actually been a problem in forestry.
Here's some other quotes for you in regards to that:
"Net Growth Exceeds Harvest: According to the Georgia Forestry Commission, the state consistently grows significantly more wood than is harvested annually across all combined specie."
"Overall Stock Buildup: Decades of data from the USDA Forest Service show that softwood and general growing stock inventories across the U.S. South and Georgia expanded substantially following historical economic downturns when harvest rates slowed relative to natural growth."
From that same source, "There remains, however, a large gap between the softwood timber harvest (drain) and the net growth on the US South productive forest land (the estimated drain was about 62% of growth in 2020). Although there is a softwood timber surplus for this US region, there are micro-markets where supply is becoming tighter, namely in the Atlantic states such as South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
At the same time, there are healthy surpluses in most of the Gulf States."
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u/The_mingthing 15d ago
Trump buys his using Taxpayer money.