With a week of backpacking in Arkansas soon approaching, my Spring Break worries aren’t typical for me. I’m not going to be stressed about how I look in a bathing suit, for one thing, because after hiking for six days I’ll be too busy dreaming of my next bath. And I won’t be bored because I’ll be moving all day long and sleeping rock-hard at night.

But there are little things that I’m never used to worrying about that are going to be on my mind, from the day we set out on the trail, to the moment we return to civilization a week later.

For obvious reasons, toilet paper is one of them.

And according to an article published in the New York Times last week, perhaps I should think about it even when I’m not stranded in forest, especially if I want to tell myself truthfully that I’m eco-friendly.

It was no surprise to me when the article pointed out that most Americans enjoy their toilet paper like we do our mattresses: soft, firm and thick.

The shocker was the price our environment pays for our luxurious ultra-soft preferences.

Apparently, the more comfortable the tissue, the more likely it is that its fibers were taken from a standing tree. In other words, when we pay for the tissue that pampers our behinds, we’re encouraging companies to cut down millions of trees each year, many of them from old-growth forests throughout our continent.

This is absurd, especially when tissue can be made at almost the same cost from recycled materials.

But we insist on the fluffiest brands for our sensitive tushes, and it might be simply because we don’t know that our small comforts could mean less trees.

Heck, when I’m discerning which toilet paper to buy, the question I ask myself first isn’t “How were these made?” or even “Which is the cheapest?” but rather “Which one is the softest?” I have never considered the possibility that the product I use for the grossest of tasks could come from the most majestic of trees.

I’m not going to claim that we shouldn’t use trees to make things we need, but is it really necessary to chop down hundreds of years of old forests just wipe our butts?

Now, I don’t think many of us are ready to use leaves or our hands to wipe ourselves, as is custom in many parts of the world. But I do believe we can make the switch to more earth-friendly toilet paper fairly easily, especially if we continuously remind ourselves that tissue made from recyclables does not contain splinters.

If we do continue to make super-soft tissue, however, I insist that we save it to give away as an award, or maybe use for Thanksgiving dinner napkins. Applying it for everyday use is an insult to its quality and, quite frankly, doesn’t do anything for us aside from reducing the amount of oxygen we have to breathe.

So next time you’re buying for your bumper, remember that if it’s soft on you, it’s hard on our environment. Look for the “recycled” label and feel good about changing a small part of your life to make a big impact on our world.