The Issue with Toilet Tissue

Probably the most impactful thing I’ve done for the environment when it comes to my bathroom is swap out the toilet paper.

When I learned about the “tree to toilet” pipeline, I was horrified. Conventional toilet paper is terrible for the planet and climate change. Most toilet paper sold in the United States comes from old growth trees in the Canadian boreal forest, which stores the carbon equivalent of twice the world’s oil reserves.

Keeping tabs on the industry is the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which released a report, the Issue with Tissue.  It also created a toilet paper sustainability scorecard. Among those getting an F are some common products you’d find at big box retailers, like Quilted Northern Ultra Plush, Angel Soft, Charmin’s Ultra products, and Kirkland.

** This post contains affiliate links but was not produced in partnership with any brand. If you shop through my links, I may earn a commission. As always, all opinions are my own and I only write about items that interest me. **

What Can We Do?

We can use less toilet paper. (In our home we installed this bidet.) And we can switch the toilet paper that we do use. Americans use more toilet paper than any other country in the world. The average American uses 3 rolls of toilet paper a week. Holy shit that number seems high! I am below average in that regard. Our household of two uses a new roll about every four days. (Yes, I tracked it.)

While switching your TP may seem like a small move, collectively it saves trees, sends a message to corporations that they need to do better, and supports smaller companies offering alternatives. Just three manufacturers — Proctor & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, and Georgia-Pacific — sell an estimated 80% of the toilet paper in the U.S.

More sustainable TP options include recycled paper or bamboo. Each have their own issues, though.

More sustainable TP options include recycled paper or bamboo. Each have their own issues, though. According to a 2011 study, recycled paper products may contain BPA. Why? Because people throw their thermal paper receipts into the recycling bin. (In many cases, they’re encouraged to. San Francisco and New York City, two cities where I’ve lived, both accept receipts in the recycling.) Seventh Generation says they periodically test their recycled paper and have found small amounts of BPA in their products.

Fast growing and requiring little water, bamboo generally uses fewer resources than trees. But because of its popularity, in some cases farmers cleared forests to grow bamboo. One way to make sure the bamboo was sustainably sourced is to buy FSC-certified products. The NRDC has a great Q&A about various options.

A friend’s solution was to buy bamboo TP for her kid, but to use recycled paper for herself. Her reasoning? “I’m already old and have been exposed to lots of chemicals.” In my household, we switched to recycled paper. (We, too, are already old.) Prior, we had been using Target’s Up & Up or Quilted Northern; both got an F from NRDC.

We’ve tried some of the products that received an A from NRDC including Seventh Generation bathroom tissue, Target’s Everspring recycled toilet paper rolls, and 365 brand TP from Whole Foods. (Note that only the 365 recycled toilet paper gets an A. 365’s Sustainably Soft toilet paper scored a D.)

However, all of this toilet paper comes wrapped in plastic.

Who Gives a Crap? I Do!

While looking for recycled paper toilet tissue that wasn’t encased in plastic, I came across Who Gives a Crap, which wraps each roll in a colorful paper wrapper. The certified B Corp makes both recycled toilet paper and bamboo toilet paper. Their recycled toilet paper gets an A+ from the NRDC. However, their bamboo toilet paper only scored a D.

The NRDC writes in their 2021 report, “For bamboo products, the system evaluates whether the product has FSC certification, the type of bleach used, and, if not FSC certified, whether the company avoids sourcing fiber from primary forests or bamboo plantations that were converted from primary forests after 1994.” So Who Gives a Crap must not have done well on one or more of these criteria for their bamboo products.

I’ve been using Who Gives a Crap’s recycled TP for almost a year now. While it’s not as soft as what I was using before, I don’t really mind. The rolls also aren’t as big as the mega rolls from your typical big box store, but I prefer the smaller rolls. When you live in older buildings like I do, the mega rolls don’t fit the toilet paper holder. That’s why toilet paper roll extenders exist now as a product to accommodate mega rolls. How ridiculously American is that?

When it comes to the bottom line, I find that recycled TP isn’t even costing us more than conventional toilet paper. A box of 48 toilet tissue rolls from Who Gives a Crap cost $62. While it’s hard to compare products exactly (different roll sizes etc), I did the math and it’s roughly the same.

However, I noticed that Who Gives a Crap’s product shrunk over time. My last shipment, which arrived in June, contained 3-ply, 400-sheet rolls while the website now advertises 2-ply, 385-sheet rolls. The price has also gone up from $48 a year ago. But the cost of paper, along with many other materials, has risen during the pandemic, so that’s not surprising. We’re still working our way through the June shipment, so I’ll have to update this post later on whether I notice a difference between the 2-ply and 3-ply rolls. (Most TP is 2-ply, so the 3-ply was another distinction that had set Who Gives a Crap apart.)

Nevertheless, I think we’ll keep using them. In addition to being better for the environment, Who Gives a Crap donates 50% of their profits to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world. Now that’s a TP brand my behind can get behind.