Benefits Of Using Bamboo Toilet Paper And How To Make The Switch
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Toilet paper is one of those topics that can be uncomfortable to bring up, though after COVID toilet paper hoarding days it’s potentially less uncomfortable. It is something we all use daily. It is also a huge contributor to climate change.
When you think about the over 330 million people that live in the USA, there is a ton of toilet paper being used and flushed away every single day. And this has been occurring for decades and decades.
This post will touch on a few different topics:
Why Is Toilet Paper Bad For The Planet?
What Is Bamboo Toilet Paper?
What Are The Benefits Of Bamboo Toilet Paper?
How Can I Switch To Bamboo Toilet Paper?
Why Is Toilet Paper Bad For The Planet?
For those of us living in the USA, the majority of our tissue (toilet paper, paper towels, and facial tissues) come from the Canadian Boreal Forest. The Boreal Forest spans over a billion acres and removes annually on average the carbon dioxide equivalent of the annual emissions of 24 million cars (1).
The importance of this forest can’t be overstated, as like all forests it is home to many many species of animals and plants, as well as humans. From 1996 to 2015, over 25 million acres of the forest were clearcut, a process that removes nearly every tree from the region and takes over 100 years to be restored (1).
It has been estimated that clearcutting for a single year in the boreal forest releases 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. To put that in perspective, that is 12% of Canada’s carbon dioxide emissions they agreed to cut under the Paris Agreement for 2030 (1).
Once the trees have been logged from the Boreal Forest, they are trucked to pulp mills that turn the trees into pulp. Water and energy-intensive chemical processes remove the tree’s cellulose and once that is completed the pulp goes through a chemical bleaching process which makes the pulp white (1).
From the pulp mills, the tissue is shipped off to various global factories to be packaged for consumers. From the packaging factories the tissue is then shipped back around the globe to your grocery store where you might pick it up. And once bought, it is flushed down the toilet.
It is estimated that annually one tree is consumed by a two person household in bath tissue (2). And with it taking 100 years to replace that single tree (3), creating toilet paper out of new trees is simply not sustainable in any way.
That is why it is so important to not be buying virgin tissue products (industry term for tissue products using new trees). Instead, buying toilet paper used from recycled paper or toilet paper that doesn’t use tree pulp at all is the direction sustainability is moving towards.
What Is Bamboo Toilet Paper
If cutting down forests to make toilet paper is so harmful to the planet, what is the alternative? One alternative is bamboo.
Bamboo is a grass that can grow in a vast range of climates with varying rain amounts (4). Bamboo also happens to be one of the fastest growing plants on the planet, taking about 2-5 years to grow (2).
Making bamboo toilet paper involves growing the bamboo, harvesting it, and turning it into pulp to then make the bath tissue from. Bamboo harvesting and pulp making can drastically vary by organization.
But even if emissions from harvesting, pulp making, and shipping are similar to tree based toilet paper it’s important to remember you are taking 100 years and cutting it down to 5 years of growth time. For this reason bamboo over this life span will use up far less water, space, and time resources to grow than a tree.
What Are The Benefits Of Bamboo Toilet Paper?
The benefits of bamboo toilet paper are just beginning to be fully understood however some benefits include:
Far less time needed to grow before harvesting (5 years for bamboo, 100 years for trees) (2,3)
Needing less chemicals to make than tree based toilet paper (2)
Being stronger than tree based toilet paper, meaning you don’t need to use as much per go (2)
Being lint free, unlike tree based toilet paper (2)
Being hypoallergenic (2)
Cruelty Free, which is sadly not the norm for tree based toilet paper (5)
Being plastic free, depending on the brand you buy you can ditch the plastic wrapped toilet paper (5)
How Can I Switch To Bamboo Toilet Paper?
There are more and more bamboo toilet paper suppliers by the day entering the market and shelves of grocery stores. One important thing to remember when selecting a brand to try is to do a little research first. While many brands are doing great things some have simply gotten on the “bandwagon” so to speak and are not as sustainable as their packaging may claim.
A company we love here at Copper Rabbit Crafts is Bim Bam Boo. Bim Bam Boo is a female owned small business based in the United States.
Their products are FSC Certified, meaning they responsibly source their raw materials. Their products are USDA Biopreferred Certified, which certifies that their company meets the USDA standards for plant based products. And they are currently working on obtaining their BSCI Certification to certify that their company follows fair wage and ethical labor practices.
Bim Bam Boo toilet paper is cruelty free and plastic free. Their rolls of toilet paper are also gorgeous, which isn’t something you’d normally expect.
As a company they offer more than just toilet paper. You can get tissues (check out their absolutely adorable kids tissues) to paper towels as well.
And if you’re interested in checking them out (they do offer trial sizes if you don’t want to commit to a large order) be sure to use this referral link to get $10 off your first order!
