Why Use Zero Waste Toilet Paper?
With so many toilet paper alternatives out there, it seems difficult to believe we still need to waste so many resources for something we use for two seconds.
Did you know that the average American uses nearly 21,000 sheets of toilet paper a year—roughly the length of 23 football fields? That’s a crazy amount of toilet paper! For each roll of toilet paper, it takes 37 gallons of water.
I’ve list below some zero waste toilet paper options or use of virgin fibers in the toilet paper we use.
Toilet Paper Alternatives
Family Cloth
I agree with the Going Zero Waste blog, family cloth sounds disgusting and whoever made that the go-to word for zero waste toilet paper should be fired. However, it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Family cloth is the term used for reusable, perfectly clean and unused fabric swatches that an individual family member uses to wipe. After they are use, they’re thrown into a wet bag and washed.
My family would never get into this and even if I had a washer and dryer and lived alone, I’m not sure I could get into it.
Water
You might choose to leave paper out altogether. A bidet is a plumbing fixture or type of sink intended for washing, instead of wiping. It may be located next to the toilet in the toilet room. Fixtures that combine a toilet seat with a bidet, which may be electronic, are available.
I hear these are popular in other developed countries, but I have not actually used on in the U.S. A bidet attachment might be the way to go, which could reduce your toilet paper usage by 60 percent. Because the bidet attachment helps you get clean before wiping, this could also help make family cloth easier to use.
Recycled Toilet Paper
If zero waste toilet paper alternatives are too drastic for you, then recycled toilet paper is an option. To be clear, recycled doesn’t mean it’s previous life was used toilet paper, but a mix of paper from homes and offices. If every US house used just one roll of 100 percent post consumer recycled toilet paper a year, it would save 423,900 trees.
There is a downside to recycled toilet paper because it usually also contain BPA from thermal receipt paper, which is an endocrine disrupter. The upside is the traces in recycled toilet paper are small. So small that we absorb more BPA when we’re handling receipts than when using recycled toilet paper.
When buying toilet paper look for toilet paper that contains unbleached, 100 percent recycled content. Here are the most popular recycled toilet paper choices and how they compare.
- Seventh Generation – They have a great transparency statement for the BPA issue
- Marcal
- Green Heritage
- Tork
- Natural Value
- Who Gives a Crap? (Yes that is a real brand name, not a rhetorical question. Also, some people might have complaints about the brightly covered tissue paper wrapping, but there are ways to repurpose it as gift wrapping or packaging.)
- Green Forest 100% Recycled Bathroom Tissue
Tree Free Toilet Paper
If you can’t move past the BPA issues, there is are tree-free toilet paper options. Some use sugar, bamboo, or other fibers.
Here are some of the top brands I’ve found from other recommendations:
- NatureZway – Bamboo
- Green2 – Sugar Cane and Bamboo
- Emerald – Bamboo and Eucalyptus
- Nimbus – Bamboo
- Who Gives a Crap – Bamboo (Reviews preferred this option over the recycled option)
Interested in other Zero Waste Swaps? Check out these 12 resolutions a zero waste home!
Don’t forget to pin these zero waste swaps for later!
