Ever hear of Joseph Gayetty? In 1857, he invented commercial toilet paper, made of hemp.
We all learned during the pandemic how dear this one household item is to us.
One million trees a year are cut down to make toilet paper. TP is the industrial culmination of virgin wood pulp, 80% short fiber hardwood and 20% long fiber hardwood, and it’s something we don’t want to live without even though it’s bleached. Bleach has toxins that will kill us if we live long enough, but in the meantime, tree harvesting causes wildfires, soil erosion and animal relocation.
Ever hear of Plectranthus barbatus? How about you, page 8 gardener? This is a plant that grows to more than 6 ft. tall, its leaves are the size of a toilet paper square, it’s soft, absorbent, smells like mint, reaches full size in two months, biodegradable, and has been used for 100 years in Kenya as what we’re saying.
Canadian wood pulp is being tariffed at 27%, bumping duties to 52%.
We’ve got to do something. And who wouldn’t want to be a toilet paper farmer?
We like the hemp idea.