00:45 Are Americans Flushing the Environment Down the Toilet? A coalition of environmental groups criticized some American companies for relying on virgin Canadian forests for making paper products such as toilet paper, tissues and paper towels.

At a Glance Americans each use three rolls of toilet paper a week on average, the report says.

Much of that paper has no recycled content. It is made from ancient Canadian forests.

The report says manufacturers should use alternative fibers and more recycled content.

Americans’ desire for soft toilet paper — and lots of it — is destroying ancient Canadian forests, two environmental groups said this week.

In a report titled The Issue with Tissue , the Natural Resources Defense Council and Stand.earth say the average American uses three rolls of toilet paper a week.

The report also says Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Georgia-Pacific use no recycled content in their at-home toilet paper. The bulk of the wood pulp for their tissue comes from boreal forests in Canada.

“Most Americans probably do not know that the toilet paper they flush away comes from ancient forests, but clear-cutting those forests is costing the planet a great deal. Maintaining the Canadian boreal forest is vital to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change ,” Anthony Swift, director of the NRDC's Canada Project, said in a news release accompanying the report.

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The report assigned sustainability-based scores for at-home tissue brands.

Leading United States brands like Charmin, Quilted Northern and Angel Soft got "F" grades. Brands using recycled paper content, including 365, Seventh Generation and Natural Value, were among those awarded “A” grades. The report also looked at paper towels and facial tissues.

The report says Procter & Gamble is the worst U.S. paper company at using sustainable components. Cleveland.com said Procter & Gamble did not respond to requests for comment. The Reuters news service said it also asked the company for comment and got no response.

A spokeswoman for Georgia-Pacific told Reuters 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 spokeswoman said.

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Reuters said a spokesman for Kimberly-Clark said the company has committed to reducing virgin pulp content in its products by 50 percent by 2025 and increasing the use of alternative and recycled fibers.

“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,” wrote Terry Balluck, Kimberly-Clark’s director of global communications.

The report says industrial logging claims more than 1 million acres of boreal forest every year, equivalent to seven National Hockey League rinks each minute. It said that loss is harming indigenous communities and animal species that rely on the forests.

The forests' ability to absorb carbon helps fight global warming, the report says.

The environmental groups say recycled content and alternative fibers are readily available for use in toilet paper, paper towels and other tissues, but companies continue to rely on old production formulas.

The report says consumers can help by using less toilet paper and buying products that use more recycled content and alternative fibers. It also said consumers can be less concerned about the texture of toilet tissue. Softness became an important feature when toilet paper was marketed to Americans who were used to using pages from the Farmers' Almanac and Sears, Roebuck catalogs.

The U.S. tissue market creates $31 billion in revenue every year, the report added, second only to China.

Americans, who make up about 4 percent of the world’s population, account for 20 percent of global tissue consumption, the report says. The U.S. uses about 28 pounds of toilet paper per person each year.