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The next time a student at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy grabs for that roll of toilet paper, he or she might be reminded of Zev Medoff and Elisha Fogel – or at least of their unusual science project.

Ninth-graders Medoff and Fogel, of Silver Spring, are the only students from the Hebrew Academy in Aspen Hill to submit a project to the Montgomery County Science Fair this year. Their project, appropriately titled "Flushing Away the Best," compares the public's views on the economics and usage of recycled toilet paper with those of non-recycled toilet paper.

Tina Walls, the academy's Upper School science department head, said the project came as a surprise even to her. Medoff and Fogel had approached her about submitting a project to the fair.

"These two young men took it upon themselves to come up with the idea for an environmental project and they fully went at it," Walls said. "This wasn't an assignment. They wanted to have something going on at the fair."

Medoff, 15, and Fogel, 14, had different class schedules, but became good friends and eventually partners on the science project after meeting through the academy's hospital volunteer program. The teens had diverse backgrounds and interests — Fogel, originally from Manhattan, is the eldest of five brothers and likes guitar, piano, baseball and building projects; Medoff, who has lived in the Montgomery County area since he was 3, is a Boy Scout, a member of the jazz band and track team, and had recently learned how to play the ukulele in a talent show contest.

What they do have in common is a shared interest and passion for the sciences and preserving the environment. The two friends came up with the idea for the project after reading articles and watching class videos on the detrimental effects that toilet paper production has on the environment.

Their research shows that toilet paper made from non-recycled paper uses more trees than toilet paper made from recycled paper. As a result, more animals' habitats are destroyed due to deforestation and fewer trees mean less oxygen that becomes available on the planet, Medoff said.

"Greenpeace [USA] stated that if each family switched to recycled toilet paper, it could save over 400,000 trees a year," Medoff said.

Fogel added the destruction of trees leads to the destruction of oceanic ecosystems, particularly the coral reefs, as debris and runoff from cutting down trees make their way into streams and lakes, and eventually oceans.

"[The coral reefs] get destroyed from the stuff that comes from the trees, and that destroys the habitats of plants and animals who live in the reefs and depend on the reefs for food," he said.

In addition, Fogel said, coral reefs are also important to the environment because they build up buffer zones that prevent fewer hurricanes and tsunamis from hitting coastlines.

Putting the paper to the test

The project display features a 3-foot by 2-foot wooden board with a dowel attached to it. Running across the dowel are four different brands of toilet paper. The project took two months to plan and design and the survey portion took about a month, the young scientists said.

As part of the experiment, participants were presented with the toilet paper rolls and asked to rank the softness of each roll on a point scale of one to 10, with one being the roughest and 10 being the softest.

Medoff and Fogel surveyed 72 students and discovered that the brand Charmin, made from non-recycled paper, received the highest softness rankings, a 9 out of 10, while Marcal, made with 100 percent recycled paper, received the lowest softness rankings, a 4.6 out of 10. The brands HomeLife and Scott, made from partially recycled paper, fell in the middle of the pack, with 7.2 out of 10.

No surprise there, Medoff and Fogel said.

But when participants were told that one roll of toilet paper is twice as expensive as another roll, and were asked which toilet paper they preferred knowing that fact, Medoff and Fogel were surprised to discover that only 58 percent of participants opted for the less expensive roll.

Medoff and Fogel had expected a higher percentage of students to prefer the less expensive brand.

"We had expected the number to be in the 70s at least," Fogel said. "We thought it would make more sense for people to choose the brand that was cheaper and that would hurt the environment less."

At the same time, both were also encouraged by the experiment's results.

"I don't believe that's bad and it can be improved," Medoff said. "I think people can do better than 58 percent and switch to Marcal."

He said he and Medoff "feel that once recycled toilet paper brands become more well known, more people will switch to buying it."

Fogel and Medoff's experiment has managed to convince other people to switch to more environment-friendly toilet paper brands, including Carin Gottlieb, Medoff's mother.

Gottlieb said she was alarmed by her son's research on the environmental hazards involved with the production of softer-quality toilet paper.

"We had been using Charmin forever, and we had no idea," Gottlieb said. "We felt really bad about it."

The family has since switched over to the Marcal brand.

"His research helped us to understand a lot of these issues, and how important the little things we do every day can make such a big impact on the environment," Gottlieb said.

Fogel and Medoff had used their lunchtimes and breaks in between classes to find interested students to participate in the survey. With their large wooden display and the endless rolls of toilet paper, the two students were hard to miss in the hallways of the academy.

"We had one person who had participated and he couldn't make up his mind on which toilet paper was the softest," Fogel said. "He kept coming back to our display and feeling the toilet paper rolls over and over again."

Medoff added one friend asked if he could "test" each roll in the bathroom.

"We had to tell him, ‘Sorry, but no,'" Medoff said. "This is a touch test only."

Medoff said he and Fogel look forward to trying their experiment on other participants and visitors to the county science fair.

"I'm encouraged when young people take an initiative like this," Walls said. "I'm really excited for them, and I'm anxious to see their results."

The Montgomery County Science Fair will be held March 19-21 at the University of Maryland. The fair features experiments and displays by high school and middle school students.

The touch test

The average softness score for each roll of toilet paper:

-Charmin: 9 out of 10

-Scott: 7.2 out of 10

-HomeLife: 7.2 out of 10

-Marcal: 4.6 out of 10

Cost per roll

-Charmin: 43 cents

-Scott: 22 cents

-HomeLife: 22 cents

-Marcal: 19 cents