As we come to the end of our latest pack of supermarket (plastic-wrapped) toilet paper, I want to move on to a more eco alternative. But with so many different brands out there, which one should I choose?
To try and help me decide, I picked a few brands (mainly ones I’ve already heard of) and compared them on material, packaging, production, shipping, social initiatives, and costs. The ones I’ll be talking about today are:
Other companies exist and I’ll list a few at the end but this post is going to be long enough as it is – I can’t include them all!
A quick note on how I did my research:
I’ve only included information that can be easily accessed from each company’s website – ideally from the actual product page or the companies About us, but also FAQ/Help pages where needed. Someone looking to buy loo roll should not be expected to go beyond the product page or research extensively to find key product details. Companies have a responsibility be transparent and upfront about this information – especially companies that tout themselves as environmental.
Of the four brands I looked at for this post, I found Who gives a crap’s website to be the hardest when I was looking for this information. They use too much cringey, quirky text on the product pages in place of actual product information, which was instead buried in the Help section. This might appeal to some, but in my opinion it’s a bizarre choice, and not the most transparent or accessible (‘wacky’ advertising isn’t really plain language-friendly, either). It’s a shame because they were actually one of the most informative websites, if you went digging for the info.
With that out of the way, let’s jump right into it!
Material
All the eco-toilet papers I’ve seen are either recycled paper or bamboo. Who Gives A Crap’s standard TP is 100% recycled paper. It’s made of mainly post-consumer paper (books, printer paper, etc.) and 5% post-industrial paper, such as off-cuts from factories. This is obviously a great way to recycle used paper, especially when it’s to make something that will end up down the toilet anyway!
All the others are bamboo-based rolls. Bamboo is technically a grass and is a great alternative to tree-based toilet paper. Once bamboo has reached maturity (which takes about 7 years), bamboo can be harvested and regrown and harvested every year on repeat. Compare that to trees, which take up to 100 years to grow and can only be harvested once! There are other environmental benefits with bamboo as well, which can be found in this article if you want to know more.
Cheeky Panda, Naked Sprout and Who Gives a Crap premium all have 100% bamboo paper. Interestingly, Greencane toilet paper is a combination of bamboo and recycled sugarcane pulp (a by-product of sugar production). I’m not sure whether this has any additional benefits over 100% bamboo paper, but it is making use of a waste material.
Packaging
All the companies on my list offer plastic-free packaging. And all of them send their toilet paper in cardboard boxes. As an extra plus, Naked Sprout states that their delivery box and roll cores are made from recycled cardboard.
Cheeky Panda, Greencane and Naked Sprout are the ultimate low waste option because they offer ‘naked’ rolls – i.e. loos rolls with no wrapping.
On the other hand, Who Gives A Crap rolls are each individually wrapped in pretty, patterned paper. This does give Who Gives A Crap the edge in terms of looks, but I don’t think that justifies the additional packaging that will have taken additional environmental resources to make (I also couldn’t see whether the packaging was made from recycled paper or not). Sure, you can re-use it in crafts, but it will still need to be disposed of at the end of its life, and if that’s through recycling then that too will carry an environmental cost.
The additional packaging is unnecessary, and I believe it’s purely for the brand recognition. Who Gives A Crap basically say as much on their help pages (after also saying that the packaging is necessary to keep the rolls hygienic and moisture-free – a claim I find odd when so many other companies are managing without):
“Also, we think they look cute. They work wonders as an online product because they’re eye catching and shareable. We know this because our customers are constantly sharing snaps of their deliveries on social media, and gifting rolls to friends. This is really important because the more people share what we’re doing, the more we can grow and the more toilet-building and sanitation projects we can fund!”
I understand this argument of brand awareness and how individuals will be encouraged to buy / like / share on social media. I can also see an argument of how the packaging could entice companies to buy into the product (such as hotels or other public facing orgs) – customers will recognise the package and that company is willing to support ethical brands. And I can’t lie, I am very tempted by the thought of special Christmas bog rolls. But all of this is a PR or vanity choice, not an environmental one. The individual packaging is surplus to personal consumer use, however pretty it is in your bathroom. They could at least offer a naked loo roll option alongside the wrapped ones (as I’ve seen with other companies).
Production and shipping
One of the main things that came up when I investigated production was the use of whitening agents. Before looking into this, I didn’t know that toilet paper is bleached to make it appear white. And there’s no actual need for it! It’s only whitened to look more appealing and familiar to the consumer (not that we as a consumer are asked – I wouldn’t care if my loo rolls weren’t crispy white!).
Most of the eco-options – Cheeky Panda, Greencane and Who Gives A Crap – use whitening agents as well, albeit more environmentally non-chlorinated alternatives. The reason is the same – to make them more familiar with the consumer. Cheeky Panda and Who Gives A Crap recycled paper use hydrogen peroxide, which converts to water during the manufacturing process. Who Gives A Crap bamboo uses elemental-free chlorine which they say doesn’t bioaccumulate, i.e. is not absorbed by living things in the environment. Greencane’s whitening agent wasn’t clear.
Naked Sprout, on the other hand, are the only unbleached toilet paper on the UK market (according to their website, anyway!), which means no whitening agents at all.
An additional manufacturing consideration with the Who Gives A Crap recycled paper is that it may contain BPA, as some paper types include it. Who Gives A Crap state that they source high-quality raw materials that should not contain BPA and that they conduct BPA testing on a regular basis. However, each batch is different, and they can’t guarantee that the paper is 100% BPA-free.
All four companies produce and ship their toilet rolls from China and all four companies transport to the UK using sea freight, which is supposed to be the most carbon-efficient option.
Costs
I’ve summarised the costs and calculated cost per 100 sheets in the table below. Some things to bear in mind:
- I’ve based my cost calculations on the subscription price for 48 rolls, to be consistent across brands.
- Doing a price per roll / number of rolls wouldn’t work as the number of sheets in each roll varies across the brands (meaning the rolls will last different lengths of time). This is why I focused on the cost per 100 sheets.
- Cheeky Panda and Greencane are 2-ply, whereas Who Gives A Crap and Naked Sprout are 3-ply – however, I haven’t taken this into consideration for the costs as I don’t think it makes much difference.
- I’ve also included the cost for a normal popular toilet roll brand (Andrex) and supermarket own brand (Tesco) for a realistic supermarket comparison (both of these are tree-based paper in plastic packaging).
|
Brand |
Cost for 48 roll pack (subscription cost) | Cost per 100 sheets |
Delivery cost |
| Cheeky Panda | £34.20 | 35.6p | Free |
| Greencane | £29.80 | 20.7p | £4.44 (making it 23.8p/100 sheets) |
| Naked Sprout | £35.99 | 25.0p | Free |
| Who Gives A Crap premium (bamboo) | £40.00 | 22.5p | Free (for all orders over £20) |
| Who Gives A Crap standard (recycled paper) | £36.00 | 18.8p | Free (for all orders over £20) |
| Tesco Luxury Soft (24 rolls) | – | 15.0p | – |
| Andrex Classic Clean (24 rolls) | – | 28.0p | – |
I assumed that eco-toilet paper would be far pricier than ‘normal’ toilet roll, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of them are cheaper than the normal branded product, Andrex. Who Gives A Crap recycled paper is the cheapest eco-option and is particularly reasonable compared to Tesco’s own brand.
Cheeky Panda, however, is an expensive eco-option, at more than double the cost of the Tesco toilet roll and even more expensive than the main brand Andrex. Greencane, Naked Sprout and Who Gives A Crap are all more expensive than Tesco’s toilet paper, but cheaper than Andrex.
Social initiatives
Two of the companies talk about linked social initiatives. Who Gives A Crap gives 50% of its profits to organisations that work to provide toilets to those that need them. They recently announced donating $8.38 million Australian dollars (approximately £4.7 million) to the cause. Organisations Who Gives A Crap have worked with include WaterAid Australia, Sanergy, Lwala Community Alliance and Watershed.
Naked Sprout is partnered with a charity called Just a Drop, who work to implement clean water, sanitation and hygiene for those who need it. Naked Sprout aren’t as clear on their website with how much of their profits go to supporting Just a Drop, but they state that “Each Naked Sprout box helps safeguard the environment and gives a child in Kenya safe water at school for 1 year.”
In summary (aka the TL;DR table)
The following table summarises all the main points that I’ve picked up on.
| Brand | Cheeky Panda | Greencane | Naked Sprout | Who Gives A Crap premium | Who Gives A Crap standard |
| Material | Bamboo, 2-ply | Bamboo and recycled sugarcane, 2-ply | Bamboo, 3-ply | Bamboo, 3-ply | Recycled paper, 3-ply |
| Packaging |
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| Production and shipping |
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| Social initiatives | Partnered with Just a Drop, a charity who works to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene for those who need it. | 50% of profits are donated to organisation that help build toilets for those who don’t have access to them. | |||
| Cost per 48 roll box | £34.20 (free delivery) | £29.80 (+ £4.44 delivery) | £35.99 (free delivery) | £40.00 (free delivery) | £36.00 (free delivery) |
| Cost per 100 sheets | 35.6p | 23.8p* | 25.0p | 22.5p | 18.8p |
| *takes into account the delivery cost. | |||||
So, which eco toilet paper is best?
It depends on what you want to get out of it.
If we’re focusing on cost alone, Who Gives A Crap recycled paper is the most economical choice. If you’d prefer bamboo paper, the Who Gives a Crap premium bamboo option comes in at a close second. There’s also the added bonus of knowing some of your money will be going to help toilet initiatives in other countries.
But if environmental footprint is more important to you, Who Gives a Crap’s individual wrapping is not ideal. Sure, it’s plastic-free and recyclable (or you can use it for crafts/wrapping paper). But at the end of the day it’s a pretty but unnecessary add-on, with it’s own environmental cost. In that regard, one of the naked roll options is better.
One thing lacking from all the toilet papers I compared was that none of them were made in the UK. This is somewhat understandable for bamboo, although I believe it would be possible to grow closer to the UK (e.g. mainland Europe) if there was call for it. There were some recycled paper options manufactured in the UK (see Other options below), but I didn’t consider these because either 1) they were in plastic/non-recyclable packaging, or 2) there wasn’t enough detail on the product to satisfy me.
Coming back to the cost, I think it’s important to acknowledge that most of the eco-options were actually cheaper than a tree-based leading brand (Andrex); this means that making the switch to a more environmentally friendly toilet paper is achievable for many people, especially if you can afford and normally do buy the branded toilet paper. If not, there are other more environmental supermarket own switches that you can make – I’ve listed some examples in the Other options. Any ecoswitch is better than no ecoswitch.
So, which one have I picked?
I wanted to try a bamboo over recycled paper, so I’ve decided to give Naked Sprout a try. It’s not much more expensive than the Who Gives a Crap premium, but it comes without the individual wrapper. It’s also the only toilet roll that’s un-whitened, which I’m curious to try, and I like that the cardboard packaging and inner tubes are made from recycled cardboard. They also have the same bonus of having a charity partner, albeit Naked Sprout’s contribution to the cause is not as transparent.
BUT… one of the most important factors for toilet paper is comfort, and I’ve obviously made my decision here without ‘road testing’ any of the products. It’ll be interesting to see how Naked Sprout stacks up compared to normal loo roll, and I’ll probably pick up a roll of Who Gives A Crap recycled paper too so I can compare both – my bum will make the final judgement!
Other options
There are so many toilet roll brands out there I couldn’t possibly fit them all into one comparison, so I’ve listed other companies below if you want to check them out yourself. I’ve also included some supermarket options, although these aren’t as environmentally friendly as the other, they are far more accessible and not as expensive.
Online options:
- Bumboo bamboo roll. Can be purchased naked or individually wrapped. Also has a ‘buy one plant one’ initiative.
- Ecoleaf by Suma. Made from 100% recycled paper, sourced and manufactured in the UK.
Supermarket options:
- Waitrose ECOlogical. 100% recycled paper from the UK (production location unclear). Non-recyclable packaging.
- Sainsbury’s super soft, recycled. 100% recycled paper also from the UK. Non-recyclable packaging
- Tesco’s Luxury soft eco. 100% recycled paper.
- Earlier this month Aldi announced that they are trialling paper packaging instead of plastic for their toilet paper. (Note that their toilet paper is still tree-based).
SEEING STARDUST 