What Is The Most Environmentally Friendly Toilet Paper?

environment. This type of toilet paper is usually made from recycled materials or ethically sourced materials, thereby reducing our essential habits' impact on the environment.

There are a few different options to choose from when it comes to finding environmentally-friendly toilet paper, each with its pros and cons. Make sure you make it to the very end to see what our final take away is.

What makes some toilet paper rolls more environmentally friendly?

Cutting down trees to manufacture toilet paper is clearly not good for the environment. In reality, the most environmentally friendly solution is to use bidet attachments instead of toilet paper. If that doesn't appeal to you, choose toilet paper made from recycled materials or a more sustainable resource such as bamboo. 

However, you must evaluate more than just the product; everything from packaging – toilet paper is frequently bundled in wasteful single-use plastic – to the supply chain and how the product is grown, created, and transported, has an impact on eco-credentials.

The product's place of origin has an impact as well; a lot of bamboo is cultivated in China, and some bamboo toilet paper is made there as well. This can impact the product's eco-credentials, as air-freighted commodities have a higher carbon footprint than other modes of transportation. 

It's also worth considering delivery; picking some up while doing your normal shopping is preferable to travelling to make a one-time purchase, and the same holds true for online deliveries. If you're buying directly from one of these companies, ordering in bulk decreases the number of purchases you'll need and provides you with one less thing to worry about for a few months.

Bamboo

Using bamboo toilet paper is one way to contribute to environmental conservation efforts. Unlike traditional toilet paper manufactured from trees, bamboo toilet paper is created from — you guessed it — bamboo! 

Bamboo is a species of grass with a fast rate of growth. It can grow from a seed to a fully mature plant in just a few months. As a result, given that trees take several years to develop, it is a perfect supply of paper.

Bamboo tissue paper is also stronger than average loo paper while being softer and silkier. The only issue with bamboo toilet paper, however, is that it can be more expensive than other types of tissue paper. 

Brown toilet paper

This type of toilet tissue is made from unbleached paper, making it a great eco-friendly option. Brown toilet paper gets its name from its brown colour, which is the result of it not undergoing the bleaching process.

Despite its contribution to a greener earth, brown toilet paper can be pretty rough compared to the average toilet tissue.

Recycled paper

This type of toilet paper made from recycled products is probably the most environmentally-friendly type of toilet tissue you can find. It reduces our carbon footprint by minimising the number of trees we cut down to make paper and the amount of energy utilised to make that paper.

This toilet paper also doesn't use chlorine in the bleaching process, thereby further aiding environmental conservation efforts.

The downfall of using recycled toilet paper is that it is not as soft as other types of toilet paper. Additionally, it is also relatively thin. However, people who use it say it does the job well enough.

The choice is yours

Recycled paper is considered by many as the most environmentally friendly toilet paper as it uses recycled materials and causes much less disruption to the earth. However, Bamboo toilet paper such as Bampers Bamboo toilet paper is ethically sourced and made and is softer and tougher than most recycled toilet paper. 

While bamboo is less harmful to the environment than wood, it is still a raw resource. The advantage of 100% recycled toilet paper is that it can be manufactured without using new materials, giving new life to paper collected through recycling programmes all over the world. It isn't as soft as bamboo, but it is frequently created in the area where you are purchasing it. It would be best if you avoided any with the FSC Mix logo because it suggests the toilet paper was made with a combination of virgin and recycled fibres, lowering its eco-credentials.

Finally, when selecting toilet paper, consider what you want to prioritise in terms of sustainability, whether it's packaging, materials, or how the product has travelled. If you really want to do your homework, look for toilet paper that hasn't been bleached with chlorine, as this is better for the environment.

Shop with Urban Ethos

Here at Urban Ethos, we love our Bampers eco-friendly toilet paper. Kind to the earth and smooth to the touch, there's no doubt as to why we love to use this toilet paper!