Mom Goes Green

I recently join the White Cloud Roll-volution!  I found the best 100% recycled-content toilet paper on earth (White Cloud’s GreenEarth brand, of course!), but my husband STILL wasn’t replacing the roll… yes, you understand that feeling when you unexpectedly find only two squares remaining!

I said he needed a lot of practice and now, our friends at White Cloud are giving us the upper hand without the added expense.  In honor of Earth Day, they’ve added 50% more to the GreenEarth packages (that’s THREE extra rolls!).  I think I’ve tried every recycled brand and honestly, the others don’t compare in quality.  Fortunately GreenEarth is surprisingly soft, so you don’t “feel” like you’re using recycled content toilet paper! Afterall, we don’t want a family revolution when it’s not up to par!

And, by the way, their FREE offer is extended to their paper towels too (you get an extra roll!)… that’s especially helpful for those of us dealing with family members that like to grab TWO when only ONE would do! (Yea, I live with them also!)  Now, you can get an extra roll while you work on adjusting their over-usage habit! They ARE super-absorbent, so that will help in your “retraining” quest too.

With the way we all seem to use (and abuse) our stock of toilet paper and paper towels, I have to continue to give the GreenEarth brand a big green “thumbs up”.  I love knowing that I’m not needlessly sacrificing trees… PLUS they’ve taken amazing strides in reducing their energy consumption and greenhouse emissions, and they recycle big time!  (See why I love GreenEarth?!)

White Cloud GreenEarth is still available exclusively at Walmart, so go and get yourself some… and some extra too… for FREE!

Thanks, White Cloud GreenEarth!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger. While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own. White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

(While I’m on the subject of making sure you have the “greenest bathroom on the block”)…

A number of months ago I talked about my participation in a blind test of recycled-content toilet paper.  White Cloud’s GreenEarth was the hands down winner AND it was even given my husband’s blessing… quite a relief after so, so many rejected brands.  (Phew!)

While I’ve now been able to count on GreenEarth to serve as our brand of choice, there’s also a bit of irony happening.  The very same husband that was so hard to please (as the self-dubbed “King of the Throne”!) seems to be having troubles actually replacing said recycled-content roll! Yea, you know what I mean… you live with one of them, don’t you?

So, I found our accepted brand of choices, but it’s not a big help when the roll is empty and never “present when needed”.  Yes, my friends, I live with a “square saver” (the one who leaves only two squares dangling on the roll!) … well, I’m joining the Roll-volution!

Our friends at White Cloud know our frustrations so, for a limited time, they have added 50% more to the package (six rolls instead of four)… and even the GreenEarth packages will be in stores soon!  No price increases, just extra free recycled-content toilet paper to help my husband (and yours!) get some practice to actually replace our dang roll!  Plus it’s now thicker and that’s a permanent upgrade!

White Cloud GreenEarth is still available exclusively at Walmart, but you can already take advantage of the coupon below for great savings now and then soon you’ll get some extra TP for free! (I’m going to stock-up big time… my husband needs a lot of practice!)

If you want to join the Roll-volution and share who you’re living (and dealing) with, White Cloud is giving away a $25 gift card every day.  Is your significant other a “square saver” too?  Maybe even a “topper”, a “ripper” or a “refuser”?

Spread the word and head there now to blow off some steam (and possibly earn a gift card to buy plenty of “practice materials!”).

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger. While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own. White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

It’s a Holiday Party and you’re invited! And it’s the best kind of party too… a Twitter party(!), where you can “come as you are” and don’t have to worry about laughing at the boss’s reeeally bad jokes or your uncle telling you the same story you’ve heard year after year (after year!).

Instead, it’s the White Cloud Holiday Twitter Party… the discussion will be great and the gifts will be just right!  We’ll chat about all the ways to unroll your imagination this holiday and every 10 minutes a $50 gift card will be given away to a random participant.  (See… I told you it wouldn’t be the same old holiday party!)

The party takes place TODAY, Tuesday, December 14, from 7:00-8:00 pm central standard time (please note your time zone: 5pm pacific, 6pm mountain, 7pm central, 8pm eastern).

Just follow the host @WhiteCloudMom and use hashtag #WhiteCloudMom to participate.  You can also use this Twitter Search to follow the conversation or simply go to this Tweet Grid and enter your username (my favorite way to participate) and you won’t miss a thing, including your chance to win!  The only thing YOU need to bring is your imagination…

So put on your fanciest outfit (or your most snuggly jammies!) and join the party!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger.  While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own.  White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

I sure hope you entered the White Cloud GreenEarth “Imagination Unrolled” contest, because today a few families have a lot of extra cash in their pocket!  I would love to know if one of the winners is a Mom Goes Green reader (and I won’t even ask for a commission or “finders fee”, I promise!).

You might recall that the contest encouraged you and/or your children to let your creativity flow and put together a craft project using toilet paper and paper towel tubes, the packaging and/or the product!  The grand prize winner received $1000(!) and two runners-up received $500 each!  The winners are shown here and I hope one of them is yours!

Even if you didn’t enter you can still visit MyWhiteCloud.com and get ideas for making some fantastic crafts that would make the perfect holiday gift for someone special.  It’s amazing what you can do with some tubes and an active imagination!

It’s also an appropriate time to add that the average household output of trash actually increases by 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s (yikes!) so you should be sure to visit your local Walmart and pick up some White Cloud GreenEarth toilet paper (bath tissue!).  Remember that White Cloud GreenEarth is always made from 100% post consumer fibers so hopefully, while you keep your holiday trash volume at a minimum, GreenEarth can help offset some of the other waste that happens this time of year!

I’ve included a coupon so you can keep a little extra cash in your pocket too… we could all use a little savings right now, couldn’t we?

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger.  While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own.  White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

So, I recently told you about my participation in a blind test of White Cloud’s GreenEarth 100% recycled fiber toilet paper (bath tissue!) versus the leading recycled brand.  And yes, in the Mom Goes Green family opinion, GreenEarth is the clear winner in the recycled TP world, but now YOU have the opportunity to “unroll your imagination” and win some serious cash!

This “Imagination Unrolled” contest encourages you and/or your children to let your creativity flow and put together a craft project using toilet paper and paper towel tubes, the packaging and/or the product!  And it just so happens today is “America Recycles Day”, so it’s the perfect time to get those wheels turning and dream up your best idea imaginable of how to recycle and CREATE!  The grand prize winner will receive $1000(!) and two runners-up will receive $500 each… Once your creation is complete, submit the photo to:  http://MyWhiteCloud.com/Imagination

Voting is now open, so don’t wait!  The entry with the highest number of votes on December 3 wins big (plus two runners-up!).  And even if you aren’t feeling creative, just VOTE! You can vote for all of your favorites but only one vote per entry each day.

Now, I admit, I’m not the most crafty creature on the planet (by far!), but even the Mom Goes Green family is taking a shot at it!  My “family pirate” was committed to creating this spyglass so we can spot those scurvy dogs and scallywags that come to pillage and plunder our treasures!  Arggggg! All it took was some toilet paper and paper towel tubes, recycled aluminum foil, a bottle cap with the end cut off and skulls & crossbones printed on the opposite side of a piece of paper bound for recycling!

Now… “get ye selves to creatin’ and a votin’, Mom Goes Green crew, or we’ll make ye walk the plank!”

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger.  While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own.  White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

Yesterday, I posted the Mom Goes Green family opinion for our “Rate the Rolls” Challenge.  We tried two brands of 100% recycled content toilet paper (bath tissue!).  One was White Cloud’s GreenEarth, the other was the leading competitor, but we didn’t know which one was which. Today we got the results…

So, did we pick GreenEarth? Drumroll, pleeeeze… we did! They’ve won us over… and, ironically the other brand was Seventh Generation and that is the brand that my husband nixed when I tried to make the first switcheroo!  Fortunately I have his blessing to begin buying GreenEarth (woohoo!) and buying recycled is really important to me.  In fact, if every U.S. household replaced just one 500-sheet roll of regular TP with one recycled roll, it would save nearly 423,900 trees annually. Now, that’s a big deal!

I also now know that while both brands are 100% recycled, White Cloud GreenEarth is always made from 100% post consumer fibers, while Seventh Generation only promises 80% post consumer.  Another big bonus in my book!

I hope you’ll take the challenge too and just give it a try.  For now, GreenEarth is available exclusively at Walmart, and you can save some “green” by downloading the coupon below!

If you give it a try, let me know what YOU think.  Now click, print, buy and… well, you can handle the rest of it!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger. While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own. White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

Loyal readers know all about my on-going search for the “right” brand of recycled content toilet paper.  I’ve tried to make several changes from our regular “cushy” brand but my husband immediately called a foul every time and insisted I stop messing with the “business”!

So, when White Cloud offered to let me take their “Rate the Rolls” Challenge, I jumped at the chance.  They sent two rolls of toilet paper (okay, bath tissue, if you prefer!) simply marked “A” and “B”.  Both are made from 100% recycled fiber and, obviously, one is White Cloud’s “GreenEarth” brand and the other is the leading competitor, but I have NO idea which one is which.

Without any other information, here is what the Mom Goes Green family concluded:

• Roll “B” simply looked more “user-friendly”, if you will.  It appeared fluffier and even whiter.
• There didn’t seem to be a dramatic difference in thickness, although I will admit that there may have been a psychological advantage to the quilted appearance of Roll “B”… Roll “A” looked a bit flat and less inviting.
• As far as softness, they were fairly close, but we all agreed that Roll “B” had an ever-slight advantage… even when you crinkled it in your hand, the “crinkle-sound-factor” was a bit less for Roll “B”.
• Without getting too graphic(!) they felt fairly similar when… umm, “used”.  I’ll just leave it at that.  Stalemate.

All things considered, what did the MGG family choose?  Drumroll, please!…  Roll “B”!  While there weren’t extreme advantages, Roll “B” just seemed a bit closer to what we’re all used to (and my husband even agreed he would give a thumbs-up to Roll “B”!)  Knowing that they’re both 100% recycled content, we’d choose Roll “B”, every time.  And let’s face it, there is a psychology to everything we choose… while our own families might not care so much what our toilet paper (bath tissue!) looks like, we never want guests in our home to feel like we stole our TP from a public restroom or put out the cheap stuff!

Did we pick White Cloud’s GreenEarth? I have no idea.  They haven’t told me yet!  Stay tuned to find out… you’ll know when we do!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger.  While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own.  White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

Regular Mom Goes Green readers know all about my on-going search for that “right” brand of recycled content toilet paper.  I’m happy to say I believe I’ve found the answer:  White Cloud’s very own “Green Earth” brand of 100% recycled fiber toilet paper! … Finally!

In the coming weeks I’ll share with you more detailed information about my discovery but, in the meanwhile, I invite you to “the party”… a Twitter party, that is!  Join me in chatting about all the ways you can “unroll your imagination” around the house, as well as their new “Imagination Unrolled” contest.  (In this contest you are encouraged to let your creativity flow and put together a craft project using toilet paper and paper towel tubes, the packaging and/or the product!  The grand prize winner will receive $1000(!) and two runners-up will receive $500 each… if you’re like me and my kids, you’re already making these types of “upcycled” crafts, so why not enter a photo and take a chance at winning!  Visit www.MyWhiteCloud.com for all the details.)

The party takes place on Thursday, October 21, from 3:00-4:00 pm central standard time (please note your time zone: 1pm pacific, 2pm mountain, 3pm central, 4pm eastern).  A $50 gift card will be given away to a random participant every 10 minutes, so while you’re sharing and gaining some green information you can score some green to spend too!

Just follow the host @WhiteCloudMom and use hashtag #WhiteCloudMom when you Tweet to participate.  I expect to “unroll my imagination” and I hope you will too!

(Disclosure: I am a White Cloud blogger.  While I am compensated for my time, my opinions are entirely my own.  White Cloud neither directs nor edits my posts, comments, views or opinions.)

No one likes to retract a recommendation or end up eating their words, but I knew this would be part of my “green journey”… and it seems another retraction has to be made.  (Ugh!)

Last time it was Sigg bottles when it was discovered that their epoxy liner actually contained BPA prior to August 2008.  This time the culprit is recycled toilet paper.  (I know my husband is going to LOVE this one, because he revolted over my switch to a not-so-cushy recycled brand!)

I happened to stumble upon Jennifer’s post at Eco Child’s Play (who happened to stumble upon an original post at Z Recommends!) about the ugly fact that recycled toilet paper appears to contain BPA.  While BPA is not added to the toilet paper it is often present due to the recycling of thermal printing paper (a common component OF the recycled toilet paper).

It seems this is the reason BPA is often turning up in wastewater and tap water.  While I’m always an advocate of keeping our water sources safe, I can’t help but wonder what happens when we continually “use” this recycled toilet paper on our… well, “nether regions”.  There has to be a degree of absorption into our bodies that, quite frankly, makes me a little uncomfortable.

So now, I’m back to the drawing board.  What options are there?  Aside from installing a bidet (… by the way, I have a fabulous bidet story if you ever meet me!) or other ideas I’ve read (that include using fabric swatches that you place in a sealed container and then wash {note:  not likely to ever happen in THIS household!}) I simply don’t know.

As much as I love to save trees, I think we’re going back to traditional toilet paper until I can find another viable option.  In this house BPA is a major no-no.

(By the way, that visible shaking you just saw through your monitor was my husband jumping for joy!)

Well, NOW I’ve done it! I made a change that made my husband call a foul!

I switched our cushy Cottonelle Ultra toilet paper to an eco-friendly recycled brand and he is not happy.  So much that it prompted him to blog about it and tell the world that he’s putting his foot down for the first time!

I think in the back of my brain I thought I could make the switcheroo and he might not notice, but in reality, I knew this might be his limit.  And alas, it is.

I picked up some Seventh Generation toilet paper, and sure, it’s definitely nowhere near as thick and soft as the popular brands, but hey… I felt like saving some trees! I recently learned that if every US household would replace just one 500-sheet roll of regular TP with one recycled roll, it would save nearly 425,000 trees annually.  Seventh Generation is made from 100% recycled paper (with a minimum of 80% post-consumer) but I guess some would argue that paper “with a previous life” should never go near these “regions”.

If you have a better recommendation, PLEASE, let me know.  I can feel like I am staying true to my green mission, and maybe my husband will go along… with no ifs, ands or “butts” about it!