I was recently invited to take a tour of a local Texas recycling center which is operated by the AbitibiBowater’s Recycling Division. Casey Gray is a “Business Recycling Consultant” and he gave me an amazing tour of the AbitibiBowater recycling center in Arlington, Texas. The division that Casey operates the EcoRewards Recycling program and they educate and encourage local Texas businesses to begin recycling as much of their waste as possible.

The AbitibiBowater "Arlington Recycling Operation" Building

I arrived at around 12PM on a sunny Friday afternoon to the AbitibiBowater “Arlington Recycling Operation” building and was immediately impressed with the high level of activity surrounding the recycling center. Trucks were constantly loading and unloading at the centers numerous loading bays.

I had always wanted to see how both domestic and commercial recyclables are processed and my tour of the Arlington facility gave me a fascinating insight into how the recycling process works;

1/ COLLECTING THE RECYCLABLES:

The first stage for any recycled materials is collection. Their are several types of vehicles which perform the recycling collections;

Various Recycling Collection Vehicles

There are three main types of collection vehicles, the Front End Loading (FEL), the Rear End Loading (REL) and the Roll Off type vehicle (RO). You might recognize one or all three types of collection vehicle, try to spot them the next time you take a road trip!

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Working from home gives me the opportunity to run a green office. I went to Staples to get paper the other day and took stock of all the recycled products I could get. I have been buying Staples 100% recycled copy paper for a while. It is 20lb, 90 bright, made from 100% recycled paper without using chlorine or chlorine compounds. It serves my purpose as well as non recycled paper and helps me help the environment, that always feels good!

As I searched the shelves, I found that Staples offers more than 3,000 different environmentally friendly office products, not only recycled copy paper, but file folders, packing peanuts , recycled Post-it notes, light bulbs and even recycled storage boxes!
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We have been using eco-friendly bathroom tissue for about a year now but we recently noticed that different grocery stores carried different brands of green bathroom tissue. This called for a consumer test!!!

Contender Number 1: Small Steps Bathroom Tissue by Marcal

Marcal Small Steps Bathroom Tissue

Their tag line is “A Small Easy Step to a Greener Earth” and we certainly have to commend every company that develops and promotes green product lines. The packaging jumps out from the shelf and is instantly recognisable as an Earth Friendly bathroom tissue.

The standard pack contains 6 rolls = 708 single ply sheets, that’s 464 sq ft of bathroom tissue.

The Marcal tissues are whitened without chlorine bleaching, they are hypoallergenic and made without any dyes or fragrances.

The main selling point is that the tissue is 100% recycled paper.

Contender Number 2: Bright Green Bathroom Tissue

Bright Green Bathroom Tissue

The bright green bathroom tissue is our family favorite and we  knew that any contender to the “throne”, excuse the pun, would have a difficult task.

Once again this pack contains 6 rolls but in this case you get a double layer for extra softness = 352 double ply sheets, that equates to 264 sq ft of bathroom tissue.

The Bright Green tissue is also 100% recycled paper but it is also a guaranteed 80% post-consumer content product, that means your hard work recycling paper products is actually being put to good use!

The Bright Green tagline is “Brighten Your World” and it certainly makes us feel better about using so much bathroom tissue.

The Results!

The Marcal Small Steps bathroom tissue would certainly last a long time but we found that you would probably have to fold the sheets over several times to avoid tearing!

Marcal Small Steps Tissue Closeup

The Marcal brand tissue paper had a very simple dimpled pattern but felt too thin and a little rough to the touch.

We agreed as a family that we could get used to it after a while, and it is probably the slightly greener choice, if we could avoid excessive folding!

Bright Green Tissue Closeup

The Bright Green brand tissue has a “leafy” pattern and feels much softer to the touch.

So I’m afraid we won’t be switching from our current brand, not just yet anyway, the Bright Green Bathroom Tissue is still our favorite.