Why you should choose the most eco friendly toilet roll
This Blog post will give you the best tips on how to choose the most Eco friendly toilet roll. But why should you worry about which toilet roll you buy? The answer is simply when you look at the facts below:
- We flush 27,000 trees down the drain every year
- The average (non eco friendly) toilet roll takes 37 gallons of water to produce
- The average European uses 13kg of toilet paper per year
- 13kg of recycled toilet roll would save 30,000 liters of water and 3000 to 4000 kwh of electricity
- The proportion of recycled wood pulp used by the Kimberly Clark, one of the largest suppliers of toilet roll in the world, has fallen to 23.5%.
what to consider when choosing the most eco friendly toilet roll
There are lots of different factors to consider when you are looking to choose the most Eco Friendly toilet roll. It’s definitely a case of weighing up the pros and cons of each one.
What to look for in an Eco Friendly Toilet Roll
- Recycled Paper
- Other types of fibre – Bamboo, Corn Starch etc
- Recyclable or Home Compostable packaging
- Eco certification logos such as FSC, Green Seal and ECOLOGO
- Unbleached
- Where is it made, think about the air miles
- 1-Ply 0r 2-Ply toilet paper
- Ethical companies
What to avoid
- Made from virgin wood pulp – if it has “FSC Mix” then it will be made using virgin wood pulp.
- Chlorine bleached
- Coloured paper
- Wrapped in Plastic
- 3-Ply luxury toilet paper that uses more materials to make
- Unethical companies
Note – Recycled toilet paper may contain trace amounts of BPA that comes from recycled thermal receipt paper, newspaper, and so on. It’s in incredibly small concentrations and simply reading a newspaper or handling shopping receipts would expose you to more BPA than using recycled toilet paper would. But it’s worth knowing and you may want to check out BPA in Tickets & Receipts for more info.
Which Brands are the best
In 2019 Ethical Consumer looked at the ethical and environmental record of 27 toilet paper brands. They then scored and ranked these brands.
In the study they also considered deforestation, bleach and toxic chemicals, recycled paper, bamboo paper, FSC labelling and came up with their recommended buys.
You can read their full report here Ethical Consumer Toilet Paper Study (note you will need to subscribe to their magazine but it’s well worth it)
Ethical Consumer Top 6
- Who Gives A Crap Recycled Toilet Paper
- ecoleaf recycled toilet paper
- Essential Recycled toilet paper
- Traidcraft recycled toilet tissue
- Who Gives A Crap Bamboo Toilet Paper
- The Cheeky Panda bamboo toilet paper
Ethical Consumer Bottom 6
- Tesco Recycled toilet paper
- Boots Toilet Paper
- Morrisons Toilet Paper
- Sainsbury’s super soft toilet paper
- Tesco toilet paper
- ASDA Shades toilet paper
How do pick which one is right for you
Now that you know which the top 6 are how do you then choose which one is right for you?
The other factors I considered when choosing the loo roll that we use included Price and Softness & Strength. So here’s a bit more information on the Top 6.
Who Gives A Crap Recycled Toilet Paper
Price – £36 for 48 rolls 0.75p per roll (370 sheets per roll approx 0.20p per sheet)
Strength – 3-Ply
Packaging – Cardboard Box and Paper
Other – they donate 50% of profits to help build toilets for those in need.
ecoleaf recycled
Price – £4.99 for 4 rolls 0.55p per roll (240 sheets per roll approx 0.23p per sheet)
Strength – 2-Ply
Packaging – Compostable pacaging
Other – Made in UK
Essential Recycled toilet paper
Price – £1.99 for 4 rolls 0.50p per roll (180 sheets pr roll approx 0.28p per sheet)
Strength – 2-Ply
Packaging – GM free potato starch and is 100% compostable and biodegradable
Other – Made in UK
Traidcraft recycled toilet tissue
Price – £2.70 for 4 rolls 0.68p per roll (166 sheets per roll approx 0.41p per sheet)
Strength – 3-Ply quilted
Packaging – LDPE plastic and can be recycled with plastic shopping bags
Other – Made in UK
Who Gives A Crap Bamboo Toilet Paper
Price – £40 for 48 rolls 0.83p per roll (370 sheets per roll approx 0.23p per sheet)
Strength – 3-Ply
Packaging – Cardboard box and paper
Other – they donate 50% of profits to help build toilets for those in need.
Cheeky Panda Bamboo Toilet Roll
Price – £4.99 for 9 rolls 0.55p per roll (200 sheets per roll approx 0.28p per sheet)
Strength – 3-Ply
Packaging – Plastic packaging
Other -Bamboo grows 20-30 times faster than trees, produces 35% more oxygen and absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide, making it a much more sustainable and eco-friendly material.
which toilet roll do we use
As you can see there’s a lot to take into consideration when choosing the right toilet roll for you and your family. In the end it comes down to which factors are most important to you.
I really like Ecoleaf and love that it’s made in the UK but I have to say we are currently using Who Gives A Crap Premium Bamboo as it really is great quality and I love the company ethos.
And, before I finish this Blog I suppose I should also mention that there are alternatives to Toilet Roll such as Family Cloth, but have to admit that isn’t something we’ve considered switching to. And, there are also more Eco friendly Brands coming onto the market as demand increases.
I really hope this has helped.
So useful! Thank you so much for taking the time to get all the data together and present it in such a straightforward and understandable way. So glad I found this article!
glad you found it useful 🙂