Need a Kleenex? You won't find one at Rice University

The Houston Chronicle ^ | December 14, 2006 | Kevin Moran

[wodinoneeye]

Next all the campus toilet paper will be obtained exclusively from companies that recycle auto brake pads.

[drubyfive]

Earth science=Geology. The oil industry hires plenty of geologists out of Rice.

[metmom]

Paper products are made with pulp wood and has nothing to do with ancient forests.

I know a family that owns a sawmill and they laugh at the idea that people cut down trees just to make paper. They said there's way too much money in lumber to waste perfectly good trees on paper making; that's what the scraps are for.

[basil]

Geeze! I must have slept through the name change from geologist to "earth Scientist". I've been married to a man for 45 years who was in the industry. He is a Petroleum Land Management grad from the University of Oklahoma, and was president of Phillips Coal Company when he retired a few years ago.

[Oberon]

AArrggh. Old men's handkerchiefs always, always grossed me out, from when I was a tiny tyke until this very moment.

Throughout my school days, my father tried to get me to carry a handkerchief. I told him "I'm not real comfortable with blowing my nose on something, then putting it back in my pocket." He probably still wonders why I don't carry one.

[Beagle8U]

They do cut some trees like popular and aspen when they are small ( 6"-8" dia ) for paper pulp. They grow right back from the roots and twigs that are left.

If they are left uncut for very long they will just die out.

Most often they are clearcut because they can't regenerate and grow back without lots of sunlight.

[Oberon]

I know a family that owns a sawmill and they laugh at the idea that people cut down trees just to make paper.

Here in North Carolina, hundreds of square miles of genetically-selected, monocultured loblolly pine is farmed on plantations...grown in rows, like corn...specifically to feed the kraft paper industry. That's the fiber stock used to make brown paper bags and cardboard boxes.

A great deal of thought goes into how to get the greatest quantity of fiber out of the ground per unit time, and especially per dollar invested. It's a science.

There are also quite a few trees grown for sawtimber. However, I can confirm that yes, in my state some trees are planted, grown, and cut down just to make paper.

[StarCMC]

Well THAT cured me of wanting breakfast! LOL

[Ditter]

I have been in several old growth forest and a few should be kept as curiosities. While it is interesting to see the huge old trees and their twisted roots there is no animal life there. The trees block all the sun from reaching the ground so nothing grows down there except moss. Nothing for the deer and elk to eat, nothing for the smaller animals to eat so there are no predator animals there. It is very sterile.

On the edges of the forest and in the areas that have been cut (or burned as is natures way) there is forage for the wild game.


Hunting is great on the pipe line! heh heh

[Rte66]

Funny you should say that. I'll send you a FReepmail.

[Crolis]

Charmin for TP

Hmm...we have Charmin at work and I find it generates a lot of lint. Sometimes soft is too soft. I've found Kleenex brand Cottonelle has the right mix between softness and absorbancy.

[wideminded]

For some reason they used to have a kind of toilet paper in England that was basically wax paper. It wasn't as uncomfortable as a grater, but close. But the English were used to it. My grandmother even brought some along when she visited the US.

[Rte66]

I wonder if that is what "buttery paper" is in the UK, do you know (or anyone else here, for that matter)?

I found the term in something the other day as being the only kind of paper to use to clean tar off of you - as in, tar balls on the beach - but other references indicated it was paper for color printing presses to use. Just wondering.

[Rte66]

Ha, all my life we used 2-ply TP and all my life I tore it open and pulled the two pieces apart to use separately. It wasn't out of frugality, that's for sure.

I still do it, so have started using the kind that isn't 2-ply, lol - because it was such a stupid habit. Was it *too soft*? I don't know!

Too much info!

[Frwy]

(What does it take to make government shrink?)

I'd say "more" of something but it definitely isn't tax and spend. Maybe something like common sense. Moralty. Maybe Congress should get much longer vacations each year. Less work and more play makes Government a smaller toy. Give them free electric if they want more "power". Take away their license to steal.

[absolootezer0]

use them? they aren't supposed to just stick out of the breast pocket of your suit and look pretty?

[Alouette]

We don't buy Kleenex at my house either. We blow our noses on pages from the Koran.

[dfwgator]

I remember when my father had cloth hankies...

Life was simpler then. There wasn't all this concern about hy-giene! It my days, we didn't have Kleenex. When you turned seventeen, you were given the family handkerchief. ... It hadn't been washed in generations and it stood on its own ... filled with diseases and swarmin' with flies. ... If you tried to blow your nose, you'd get an infection and your head would swell up and turn green and children would burst into tears at the sight o' ya! And that's the way it was and we liked it!

[gipper81]

FWIW, I just used a Kleenex to relieve some nasal congestion a few minutes ago because I had to and as a protest against this Rice University action.

[MoochPooch]

We don't buy Kleenex at my house either. We blow our noses on pages from the Koran.

Or worse! LOL!

Have a Happy Chanukah.