Americans use more toilet paper than anyone else in the world, with manufacturing practices by US companies that destroy the habitats of native people who live where it is sourced and contribute to global warming, a new research study has showed.

US consumers use roughly three rolls of toilet paper each week, accounting for one-fifth of the world's tissue consumption, according to the report titled 'The Issue With Tissue: How Americans are Flushing Forests Down the Toilet' by environmental groups Stand.earth and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Single-use tissue products such as toilet paper used in the United States are made from wood pulp, mostly derived from logging in the old-growth northern, or boreal, forest in Canada, where logging companies clear cut more than a million acres (405,000 hectares) every year, the he US-based nonprofit advocacy group NRDC said.

This is problematic for a variety of environmental reasons, including the ways in which it contributes to climate change.

The worst offenders are the brands of Charmin Ultra Soft, Quilted Northern, Angel Soft, Kirkland Signature and Up&Up Soft & Strong toilet tissues, according to the report.

Stand.earth is based in both the US and Canada.

Americans use more toilet paper than anyone else in the world, with major manufacturers sourcing materials from the boreal forest in Canada, a new report by environmental groups has shown. An undated aerial photo of Boreal Forest and a river in Quebec, Canada is shown

The NRDC singled out giant US tissue manufacturers Procter & Gamble Co. (Charmin), Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Georgia-Pacific (Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, Kirkland Signature) for using largely virgin fiber wood pulp in their products rather than recycled content or alternative fibers.

'The average American consumer doesn't think about how their toilet paper is made,' said Shelley Vinyard, a co-author of the report and campaign manager of the NRDC's boreal corporate campaign, said.

'We can't afford this old-fashioned and out-dated approach to making toilet paper and other tissue products, given the climate crisis and the urgent need to keep our forests intact,' she said.

The report included 'a buyer's guide to the sustainability of at-home tissue products' which listed the following toilet paper brands as 'Grade A' options for the household: Green Forest, 365 Everyday Value (100% recycled), Earth First, Natural value, Seventh Generation and Trader Joe's Bath Tissue.

Just a step above the worst options were 'Grade D' brands of 365 Everyday Value's Sustainably Soft option, Cottonelle Ultra, Scott 1000, Scott ComfortPlus and Trader Joe's Super Soft Bath Tissue.

The worst offenders are the brands of Charmin Ultra Soft, Quilted Northern, Angel Soft, Kirkland Signature and Up&Up Soft & Strong toilet tissues, according to the report, which focused on US tissue manufacturers Procter & Gamble Co. (Charmin), Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Georgia-Pacific (Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, Kirkland Signature) for using largely virgin fiber wood pulp in their products rather than recycled content or alternative fibers

The report included 'a buyer's guide to the sustainability of at-home tissue products' which listed the following toilet paper brands as 'Grade A' options for the household: Green Forest, 365 Everyday Value (100% recycled), Earth First, Natural value, Seventh Generation and Trader Joe's Bath Tissue

'The scorecard evaluates each brand’s recycled content, bleaching process, and whether it is made from fiber sourced from FSC-certified forests,' the report said.

'NRDC and Stand.earth deemed the best indicators of how the brands impact virgin forests. Because no major tissue brands include alternative fibers at this time, this criterion was not included; we hope to use it in future versions of this scorecard.

'There are many brands not on the scorecard. However, we urge consumers to evaluate products not included in the scorecard according to the same criteria [used here].'

A detailed explanation of how individual factors were weighed to arrive at the final grades for each brand included in the report's score card is available in the appendix of the report.

In terms of toilet tissue use contributing to climate change, the group said the forest plays a key role in combating global warming because it absorbs and stores carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that contributes to it.

Logging releases that carbon into the atmosphere. Canada's forest area has declined more than nine percent since 2000 from logging, it said.

A spokesperson for Georgia-Pacific said the company makes products from recovered fiber and also from virgin wood, which is chosen for its softness and absorbency, and that it takes steps to assure it is sourcing wood responsibly.

'The choice of the raw materials we use for our products is driven by the product quality and performance characteristics demanded by our consumers,' the spokesperson said in an email.

Kimberly-Clark has committed to reducing virgin pulp content in its products by 50 percent by 2025 and increasing the use of low-impact alternative and recycled fibers, a spokesperson said.

Its suppliers adhere to industry standards to manage forests, Kimberly-Clark's director of global communications Terry Balluck said in an email.

'We are committed to making our products in ways that not only provide the health and hygiene performance consumers expect from our brands, but do so in a way that ensures the resilience of the forests where we source our fiber,' he said.

Representatives of Procter & Gamble did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The boreal forest in Canada is home to more than 600 communities of indigenous people whose traditional ways of life are threatened by intensive logging, the report said.

'Some communities have only a fraction of their forest left intact,' the report said. 'Often communities do not have the power to say no to development on their lands.'

Clearing the forest has affected the traditional routes where Cree people hunt, fish and trap in northern Quebec, said Mandy Gull, Cree Nation deputy grand chief, on the conference call.

Per capita, U.S. consumers use about 141 toilet paper rolls a year, compared with the United Kingdom at 127, Japan at 91 and France at 71, the report said.