Which Eco-Friendly Toilet Paper is the Best?

*Our gear reviews are not sponsored posts. We are not paid by Who Gives a Crap to love their loo rolls… we just do!

Each tree can produce about 100 lbs of toilet paper and, since we create 83 million rolls a day, we are felling 27,000 trees every day to flush down the loo. Each American utilizes about 23.6 rolls a year, about 50% more than other western nations. Some toilet paper comes from second-growth forests, but much is still created from virgin, boreal forests. Luckily, if you don’t want to wipe away our natural habitats, and want to reduce your impact on climate change, there are some great options out there.

Start with a composting toilet if you can, and make sure your loo paper is green.

Who Gives a Crap?

Over the years, I’ve tried a bunch of recycled toilet paper with varying degrees of success. Some are touted to contain BPA and others come wrapped in plastic. But now I think I have finally found my TP twin. Meet Who Gives a Crap, the ethical toilet paper manufacturer made from recycled paper or bamboo.

Who Gives a Crap donates 50% of their profits to provide sanitation and toilets in the developing world. To date they have donated $1,175,000 to providing sanitation, they’ve saved 50,586 trees by using bamboo instead and kept 7,845 tonnes of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

The paper contains no chlorine, inks, dyes or scents. The rolls come in a cardboard box and are individually wrapped in paper. Now this was something I initially didn’t like. Their packaging is adorable and definitely a conversation starter for guests who wander in to the WC, but why wrap them at all?

From Who Gives a Crap: “We actually need to wrap the rolls to keep them moisture free and hygienic in transit – we can’t just put them in a cardboard box unwrapped. We’ve explored a number of other options, including wrapping in larger paper bags or other configurations.

However, wrapping the rolls in anything larger than 6 packs wasn’t possible due to strength issues. Wrapping in 6 packs would have required a much higher grade of paper so the net paper usage (by weight) was actually roughly the same either way.

Therefore, wrapping each roll individually in paper made the most sense, economically, environmentally and from a design perspective – so it was an easy choice for us. We’ve also increased the sheet count per roll (400 sheets for our core recycled product) which is in some cases more than four times as many sheets per roll as our supermarket competitors. It’s crazy when you think about all of the extra packaging, inner cores and inefficient shipping that we’ve saved by making our rolls longer!”

So there you have it – each aspect of the product, shipping and packaging has been carefully created to have the least impact on the environment.

But is it Soft?

I’ll be honest, I’ve had softer luxury brands, but it is by far the softest of the eco-friendly brands on the market. I found it soft, strong and I love the brand’s ethics, so this TP gets two thumbs up! You can order Who Gives a Crap tissue online.