The toilet paper awaited me. I tried them all.

I'm happy to report I have not had to seek medical attention for abrasions from scratchy paper - because it was fine.

Allen Hershkowitz is a proponent of recycled toilet tissue and a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Now, he is obsessed. He has timed himself in the bathroom and says it takes less than five seconds to use up a piece of tissue.

And for that, he asks, we're using trees?

Recently, he went to a swank French spa to give a speech. The TP was brownish, stiff. But, "the president of France goes there," he said, "and everybody survives."

Still, I recently had a bad cold, my nose raw from all the tissues, and I wasn't even using recycled.

I told the spokeswoman at Seventh Generation, and she laughed. In cold and flu season, even they "concede to softer brands," she wryly noted.

So maybe I'll just go with the virgin pulp for my delicate nose. And I'll take eco-paper for, uh, the other end.

No more trees for me.

GreenSpace:

For more about recycled paper and trees, go to: http://go.philly.com/greenspace

GreenSpace: Pointers for Paper Products

What's in recycled: Environmental groups advocate paper products made from 100 percent recycled materials. Look for a high percentage of "post-consumer" material, made of paper recycled from homes and offices. Regular "recycled" can contain leftover paper from industrial processes.

Paper recycling update: Last week, the American Forest and Paper Association announced that in 2007, an all-time high of 56 percent of the paper used in the country was recovered for recycling. It totaled 54.3 million tons - more than 360 pounds for every person in the country. The group set a goal of 60 percent by 2012, which still leaves 40 percent more to go.

Historical note: Yo! Philadelphia is a cradle of paper progress. In 1690, William Rittenhouse and William Bradford founded the first North American paper mill along the Monoshone Creek, making paper from old cloth rags. (Wood wasn't used in the United States until the early 1900s.) Scott Paper Co., founded by two brothers in 1879 in Philadelphia, marketed the first rolls of toilet paper, and today Kimberly-Clark employees still make Scott products at the plant in Chester.

What's ahead: Major manufacturers are making changes. Kimberly-Clark is test-marketing Scott Naturals. The line includes facial tissues from 20 percent post-consumer recycled fiber, TP from 40 percent, and paper towels from 80 percent.

Contact staff writer Sandy Bauers at 215-854-5147 or sbauers@phillynews.com. To post a comment or learn more, check out her blog at http://go.philly.com/greenspace.