I can’t believe we are up to number 10 of the plastic free-ish challenge for the year! This month I’m recapping my challenge to swap to an eco friendly toilet paper. It didn’t go exactly as I had originally planned, but as with many of the other swaps, I was able to improvise and find other solutions.
Eco Friendly Toilet Paper – Plastic Free-ish Challenge #10
Goal
This seemed to be the most common sense thing to change, since toilet paper is wasteful by nature. Why use plastic and trees to make something to flush away?
My goal was to swap from the toilet paper that I had previously been buying, which was not recycled and came wrapped in plastic, to an eco friendly toilet paper with no plastic packaging.
Eco friendly toilet paper option #1
The first thing I did was explore the 3 closest grocery stores in my area. To my surprise, none of them had an option for toilet paper that wasn’t wrapped in plastic. NONE!
That was a big surprise to me. I thought I’d find at least one and that would be the most practical way to make the swap.
There are probably specialty stores around here that sell paper wrapped toilet paper. However, I wouldn’t make one trip just for toilet paper so that wasn’t a realistic or practical option for me.
I recommend checking your area to see if there are any options you could get with your groceries or other errands first because your stores might be different to the ones here.
Eco friendly toilet paper option #2
This led me to my back up plan – Google.
After some Googling, I came across toilet paper by Who Gives A Crap. Isn’t that the coolest name for a toilet paper company?
They seemed to have a good product and I had heard good things from friends, so I decided to give it a go and made my order.
Who Gives A Crap was the eco friendly toilet paper I tested out
Pros of Who Gives A Crap
One of the biggest perks about The Who Gives A Crap toilet paper is the packaging. Each roll is individually wrapped in the cutest paper packaging that looks more like a decoration than toilet paper.
As a minimalist, I really love that it can double up as a decoration.
The other, and very obvious, perk is the eco friendly nature of it. Fresh trees aren’t harmed in the making of it, which is fantastic because it just seems crazy and wasteful to use freshly cut down trees to wipe our bums.
There are 2 options of toilet paper available – 100% recycled or 100% Bamboo.
The most eco friendly toilet paper option is the 100% recycled, while you can get a softer product with the Bamboo. I chose to go the most eco friendly route and bought a box of the 100% recycled toilet paper.
Toilet paper decorating my office alongside my most prized possession
Cons of Who Gives A Crap
The biggest con for me is something that’s not relevant for most people looking to make the swap. That is that they didn’t ship to APO addresses – what’s the deal there?
Because of this I had to order from the EU site instead of the USA site, in another currency, and pay extra in shipping to order it to my house. If you’ve been following my blog for more than 5 minutes, you know I hate wasting money and think through all my purchases obsessively so this was a huge turn off for me.
Like I said though, that’s not relevant to everyone and most people will be able to order and ship to their address without the extra fees.
The only other con is that it is more expensive than the toilet paper you would buy at the store and there is more on the cost comparison below.
What’s it like to use 100% recycled toilet paper?
Really it’s the same as using any other toilet paper – you wipe your butt the same.
The only difference I noticed was that the recycled toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap was slightly more flakey than the regular paper I was using before.
It’s not so delicate that it falls apart or anything, just slightly more fragile and really not a big deal. It’s not something that would stop me using it again, just something I noticed.
The cost
For the 100% recycled toilet paper, you can get 48 rolls for $48USD – that’s $1 per roll of toilet paper.
The toilet paper I had previously been using had worked out to about .50 cents per roll, so it was double the cost.
However, since many of the plastic free-ish changes I have made this year have saved me so much money, I was OK with the extra cost for this eco friendly product and convenience of buying a large box at a time then not having to worry about it for a while.
Budget progress
I’m doing the comparison based on the regular price as opposed to what I paid with the extra fees since that wouldn’t be relevant to everyone.
One box is $48 which is just under budget for the month. Overall for the year, I am under budget with $169.85 remaining for the last two months.
Overall
I’m 100% committed to giving up the regular, store-bought toilet paper that is wrapped in plastic. I don’t want that in my house.
But, when it comes to whether or not I would continue using The Who Gives A Crap toilet paper, I’m on the fence. At the moment anyway, it just comes down to a cost issue. My money is valuable and I just can’t stand wasting it on shipping and fees.
I love the product but I’m not loyal to the brand because of this.
There are other options on Amazon, which is what I would swap to if my budget got tight. I’ve done some research and the only thing I’ve noticed is that you really have to look closely at the questions and reviews because some say they are biodegradable but they still come wrapped in plastic.
Overall though, it’s a great product, a great company, and it’s something I would recommend if you are looking for eco friendly toilet paper to try.
Other plastic free recaps you might be interested in
Low Waste And Zero Waste Toiletries – Plastic Free-ish Challenge #9
Washable Paper Towels Review – Plastic Free-ish Challenge Swap #2
Collapsible Straw Review – Plastic Free-ish Challenge Swap #5
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It’s cool that you’re doing this! I’m also trying to go plastic free(ish). I feel like going for the option where you are shipping it halfway across the planet is kind of defeating the point though, don’t you? In the end I’ve decided to stick with plastic-wrapped toilet paper, that is more locally sourced. But I don’t know which is better, what do you think?
Hmm, that’s a great point. There are a lot of these changes where I have no idea what the best choice is and this is one of them. I think for this one when I see how long it lasts, I’ll have a better idea of what I’ll stick to. I don’t know if there’s one right answer and I don’t think it’s bad to stick with the plastic wrapped toilet paper that you can buy at the store to avoid the shipping impact.