For most of us, loo rolls are just something we throw into our shopping trolleys and forget about. We use them every day, but we don’t really stop to think about where they come from – or what it takes to make them.
Turns out, it’s a lot more than you might guess.
Making just one roll of wood-pulp toilet paper uses up a tonne of valuable resources, ones that we really should be preserving for the planet’s future. And with about 184 billion rolls churned out every year, that adds up to a whole lot of harm to our environment.
Below, we’ll take a look at three important resources that go into making regular toilet paper, why it’s a big deal, and what we can do differently. Let’s get started!
How many trees are harvested to produce toilet paper?
Regular toilet paper is made from wood pulp, and you can’t have wood pulp without trees. TP production is responsible for nearly 10% of the world’s deforestation, and we’re flushing away about 27,000 trees every single day. That’s a lot of trees down the drain!
Naturally, this isn’t great for the environment. Trees provide habitat and food for countless species of wildlife, making them vital for biodiversity. Even more importantly, they’re like Mother Nature’s air fresheners: they release oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, and filter out pollutants from the air. In simple terms, they’re the real gamechangers of our ecosystems, and we can’t do without them. Toilet paper production is putting all of that in danger, which is a big reason why it’s so bad for our environment.
How much electricity is needed to produce loo rolls?
Trees aren’t the only things involved in making toilet paper. Once the raw materials have been harvested, they’re shipped off to manufacturing plants to be pulped and turned into sheets. The machines that are used to do this – and there are a lot of them – run on electricity, so a lot of juice is needed to keep them working at full operation.
Producing just one toilet paper roll gobbles up 1.3 kWh of electricity – that’s 260 kWh per household every year. Even worse, most of that power comes from burning fossil fuels, which is awful for our planet and adds fuel to the already blazing fire of climate change. This is yet another reason why the production of TP is so hard on the planet.
Does producing toilet paper use up a lot of water?
The electricity used for making toilet paper is already bad, but let’s not forget about all the water it guzzles up, too.
Trees that get cut down for their wood need a tonne of water to grow big enough for harvesting. In fact, it takes about 230 litres of water just to grow and process the wood for one roll of toilet paper. Even more water is needed to turn that wood into pulp, which adds to the overall water usage of toilet paper production.
Water covers the whole world, but there’s just a small amount of it that’s freshwater, the good stuff we can drink and use. To make sure we’ve got clean water for now and in the future, we need to be smart about how we use it – and making toilet paper isn’t exactly the best way to do so.
So, what’s the alternative to wood-pulp toilet paper?
It’s clear that we can’t keep producing wood-pulp loo rolls at the rate we’re going, not if we want to preserve the precious resources above for the future. But does that mean we have to say goodbye to TP altogether?
Not at all. There are loads of eco-friendly alternatives to wood-pulp TP out there, like recycled paper, bamboo, and hemp. However, there’s one material that really stands out from the crowd: sugarcane.
Sugarcane is the ultimate eco-friendly paper material. It grows super fast, uses up materials that would’ve otherwise gone to waste, and breaks down even quicker than wood when you flush it. By switching to sugarcane TP, you’re doing your part to cut down on resource waste and protect the planet for generations to come.
Make the switch to sustainable loo rolls from Sweet Cheeks
Here at Sweet Cheeks, we’re all about spreading the love for our awesome planet and the people who call it home. Our mission is to help make our future a green one, and we’re doing it with our super eco-friendly sugarcane toilet paper rolls.
Our toilet paper is kind to the planet, super soft and strong, and it won’t hurt your wallet. Not only will it make your business more eco-friendly, but it’ll also make your team happier too!
If you’re thinking of switching from regular wood-pulp toilet paper to sugarcane, why not take a peek at what we’ve got? We’ve got plenty of options for you to choose from, so have a look and find the one that suits your business the best!
