Did you cry? It was repeated everywhere, a few days ago, as if it were a truly major affair, that the multinational that manufactures Kleenex brand tissues was stopping marketing them in Canada. Has your life changed? Have you stopped blowing your nose?
Disposable tissues, called in everyday language Kleenex because of the brand that first marketed them, appeared after the slaughter of the First World War. On the scale of human history, we might as well say that we have been using them since yesterday.
The appearance of these paper handkerchiefs stems in part from the use of gas masks on the battlefields. To protect against the effects of chemical weapons and their toxic clouds, the use of gas masks using cotton filters became widespread during the 1914-1918 war. The shortage of cotton, used extensively to produce new uniforms to replace those of killed soldiers, encouraged the development of various types of cellulose membranes. The disposable tissue, a lightweight low-end paper, is a direct derivative. This product, initially intended for skin and facial care, was quickly used to remove accumulations of mucus from the nose.
Kleenex was the first to market these papers. This resulted in some expressions that reflect our times. “Kleenex thinking” expresses the weakness of his ideas. As soon as they are crumpled, they are thrown away in favor of another equally fragile one. Being treated without consideration in society is also reflected in an expression: “He threw me like a Kleenex. »
These handkerchiefs quickly became very popular. To the point that we have almost reached the point of wondering, if the advertising is to be believed, how humanity managed to do without it during most of its history…
On the slopes of Mount Royal, the best cyclists in the world competed last Sunday. While climbing the mountain or when the peloton’s train allowed it, several cyclists blocked one nostril with a finger to expurge, with their heads to one side, the secretions that were hindering their breathing. By stealth, hockey players do the same when they are skating. In baseball, to evacuate mucus, players maintain a practice as old as time: spitting. For a long time, spitting was not frowned upon in society. Spittoons were installed in public places, banks, shops, train stations, bars. Public hygiene issues only got rid of this practice relatively recently, after the Second World War.
To blow one’s nose, throughout the history of humanity, there was mainly the use of squares of soft fabric. Paper handkerchiefs tried to imitate them, these often colorful and personalized fabrics. How many of these handkerchiefs were embroidered with the initials of their owner? All you had to do was have a few in stock at home, and then see to it that you washed them. No need to spend money buying paper to throw it away.
Note that it existed in Japan for a long time, probably since the 9the century AD, fine paper handkerchiefs. Once used, they were thrown on the ground. Behind those who used them casually were people to pick them up. Throwing a handkerchief was one of those small signs by which certain social classes intended to assert their superiority over the mass of their peers. Picking up someone else’s handkerchief demonstrated his submission, but also sometimes his high regard. Think of the lover in novels who was troubled when the beauty dropped a handkerchief in front of him for him to pick up…
In the United States, some 255 billion squares of tissues are used and then thrown away each year. In France, there are around 30 billion of these paper tissues thrown away each year. In Canada, where the population is smaller, a little more would be used.
Some 18% of the North American population uses at least five tissues per day. And 8% use between eight and ten every day. It seems like there’s never a shortage of brats. These tissues often serve as crutches to support our laziness. They are used for anything and everything. To clean up a lot of small daily messes, is it impossible to use anything other than them? Apparently not, since we use more and more of it, as if nothing had happened.
At least 17 trees must be felled and 75,000 liters of water contaminated to produce each ton of paper intended to wipe excretions from the body. One ton of disposable paper is enough for the annual consumption of around fifty North Americans. How many thousands of trees are we willing to cut accordingly each year to support the growth of this ever-inflating market? The “old Kleenex”, discarded day after day, supported an 85 billion dollar market in 2023. If the trend continues, this figure is expected to swell by 50% by 2030.
The sneezing and sniffling attacks of increasingly prolonged allergy seasons are likely to become the norm as climate change worsens. Deforestation, partly responsible for climate change, can therefore contribute, through a rebound effect, to the increase in the need to blow one’s nose…
After all, what’s really stopping us from using reusable cotton tissues? Is it so difficult to deprive ourselves, in our homes, of the ugliness of tissue paper boxes, often absolute examples of graphic horror? By continuing to produce, buy and throw away so much tissue each year, we are in any case behaving like horrible brats.