To my delight, a few of the lovely birthday cards I received this month were tree-free.

They were made from 100 percent recycled paper.

For years, I have been seeking out napkins, tissues, toilet paper, greeting cards, paper plates and other products made from recycled paper.

Whenever I could, I bought paper made from recycled paper rather than from trees.

I am evolving.

Last year, I went tree-free and started buying those same products, when available, that now are being manufactured from rapidly-growing bamboo.

And they are wonderful.

The brand I buy, and I have seen several, is as strong and soft as regular napkins and toilet paper, and countless trees are saved.

Why chop down a beautiful tree to make toilet paper or paper plates when they can be created from junk mail or sustainable bamboo?

Always inquisitive, I did some research and learned that regular toilet paper, for example, uses 1.5 pounds of wood per roll and about 37 gallons of water for each roll during the manufacturing process.

The bamboo product uses less than one gallon of water to make one roll.

And, of course, it uses no wood.

In addition, a tree of the type used for paper products takes about 30 years to grow, whereas bamboo regrows in one to two years.

I also learned that bamboo paper is safe for septic systems and is biodegradable.

Best of all, it is much better for our earth.

According to studies, on average, each person in the U.S. uses 24 or more rolls of toilet paper a year.

Most of it is made with pulp from virgin timber, some of which is harvested from old-growth boreal forests.

Seems Americans like fluffy, soft toilet paper which requires pulp containing long wood fibers that are found only in live trees.

Europeans and many other people throughout the world are satisfied with a product made from 100 percent recycled paper, which has shorter fibers and is not quite as plush.

So what?

Why flush down the toilet part of a perfectly healthy tree that was cut down solely for toilet paper?

How wasteful.

The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates if every household in the U.S. replaced just a single roll of virgin fiber toilet paper with a tree-free roll (100 percent recycled paper or bamboo), the wood saved would add up to 424,000 trees.

Trees have much more significant roles on our planet than being used for paper products we dispose of after one use.

For example, trees produce oxygen to keep us alive.

They are a great sponge for absorbing carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.

Tree roots protect the soil and prevent erosion.

The trees provide homes and food for birds and wild animals.

Trees also provide cooling shade, cutting down on energy costs.

Trees act as a sound barrier, reducing noise pollution.

In addition, they add beauty to our surroundings and value to our properties.

So many trees and sometimes entire forests are lost to rampant development, we need not add to the problem by destroying trees just to make paper products from them.

Not when we have acceptable alternatives.

Otherwise, we and future generations may be facing a bleak future — the one Joni Mitchell once alluded to as she sang, “They took all the trees and put ’em in a tree museum. And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em.”

What a sad, unlivable world that song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” evokes.

Before it’s too late, let us all work together to ensure that museum never gets built.