According to Scottbrand.com, 17 billion toilet paper tubes are thrown away each year.  Every household has toilet paper, and every household is a contributor to this stunning statistic.  Scott Toilet Paper has started to sell toilet paper rolls without the tube in the middle.  If you are willing to buy these, go for it. In my house, we like to reuse the toilet paper tubes in a more creative way.  When we finish a roll of toilet paper, instead of throwing away the tube, we store them in a cupboard above the toilet.  After a few weeks, we gather up all the paper tubes.  My brother and I spread peanut butter on the tubes and cover them with birdseed.  Then we hang them up on trees outside for squirrels and birds to enjoy.  This is a fun way to repurpose the tubes inside of toilet paper rolls instead of immediately throwing them away.  Here is the link to the Scott Toilet Paper website:  http://www.scottbrand.com/products/toil … r/tubefree

I didn't realize how many toilet paper roles got wasted!! But like you said, there are many crafts (like bird-feeders!!) that people could start doing when they finish their toilet paper or paper towel rolls. My friends and I used to paint our toilet paper rolls and it was really fun, but now my family just throws them away. I also didn't know that you could buy rolls with out the paper in the middle, so I'll suggest that to my mom and see if my family can be more eco-friendly!

I was very surprised of the tremendous amounts of paper tubes from toilet paper thrown away every year! In addition to that, I'm sure that there are a lot of paper tubes from paper towels are thrown away as well. My family uses an entire roll of paper towels in less than a week. Instead of throwing them away, I unroll them and tape them to the sides and bottom of my cat's litter box. As the litter tends to get stickier over a few days, lots of waste attaches on the box itself which is unsanitary for both the cats and my family. The cardboard prevents the litter box from getting feces stuck on it and gives us a longer duration before we have to purchase another box.

I had never realized how much toilet paper rolls we actually waste. Our family mainly throws away those rolls when we should be recycling them. Occasionally, we would save some just in case we needed them for school or for an art project. Both my sister and I no longer take art, so we don't have much need for these toilet paper rolls. I had heard about the toilet paper without the rolls in the middle but never bothered to bring it up to my family. Now that I've become aware of how much we actually wast, I may try to convince my family to use those instead or recycle the ones that we have.

I had no idea how many toilet paper tubes were wasted all the time! But like y'all said, there's so much we can do with them through crafts or even other ideas. Also, because they're paper-like, can't we recycle them after use? My family used to have a whole cabinet dedicated to used toilet paper rolls, but I think those were mainly used for crafts when I was little. However, you could donate them to maybe a preschool near you or maybe even a women and children's shelter for them to use as crafts or toys.

I have never heard of the toilet paper without the roll in the middle, but I'll bring that up to my parents and see if we can start buying that instead. That is a really interesting and conserving idea though!

I have seen the Scott's Brand commercial that stated that each year, enough toilet paper cardboard tubes are thrown away to fill up the Empire State Building twice. This idea really shocked me, and I started thinking on ways to reduce the amount of the wasted tubes. You could always recycle them, but you could also make them into crafts like you said. Even though it would require the usage of many rolls of toilet paper, I think it would be a great and more entertaining way to help out the community.
For craft ideas, check out this link:
http://www.pinterest.com/cttdbreeves/10 … aper-roll/