Time Magazine’s Top Ten Offbeat Environmental Ideas

In our era of eco-awareness, it seems like everyone’s trying to make a difference through some new innovation or way of conservation. Of course, some innovations are more feasible than others, and Time Magazine has collected some of the most, well, questionable entries in the metaphorical arms race for sustainability.

Europeans use toilet paper with a greater proportion of recycled fiber. But for the true eco-warrior, there’s an even more environmentally friendly solution — reusable toilet wipes. Made of cloth, reusable wipes offer all the comfort of the triple-ply, ultra-quilted toilet paper roll with none of the nasty tree-killing consequences. Instead, there’s only the little matter of storing and washing dozens of waste-covered pieces of cloth. Every week. It’s a tough sell, but one manufacturer promises they don’t stink and sells wet bags to contain the dirty wipes.

What.

As admittedly eco-friendly as this idea is, how many people will likely go for it? (Outside of being held to it at gunpoint?) Here’s what Time had to say on the matter:

Eco Craziness: 5/5. The cloth wipes are even sold in “funky and fun” combinations. We’re willing to bet they’re funky, especially after a week in the wet bag. Fun? Not so much.

We agree. Scrap the reusable toilet paper and pick up a reusable bag — a whole lot easier, and a whole lot more sanitary. Check out the rest of the top ten right here!

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 10:03 am and is filed under Blog Bites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.