Saving the World One Wipe at a Time

Yesterday, my sustainability group presented our life cycle analysis of luxury toilet paper. We explored the detrimental effects of toilet paper to our environment. To help spread the word, I've created a brief summary of our findings:


27,000 trees are cut down EVERY DAY in order to make toilet paper. These companies are using virgin wood fibers, when in all reality they could easily be using recycled inputs, saving those 27,000 trees daily. 


Here were our Study Objectives:
   -Determine the environmental impact of luxury toilet paper
   -Assess whether recycled or virgin fibers are less environmentally harmful
   -Develop Specific Recommendations for Kimberly Clark


The current LCA showed that just ONE roll of toilet paper had an Okala impact factor of 60.


We had these recommendations to lessen toilet paper's impact:

   -Switch from virgin wood fibers to 100% recycled fibers

   -Use single ply, rather than double ply

   -Use low density recycled polyethylene, rather than low density virgin polyethylene for packaging

   -Remove the cardboard roll completely

   -Remove the entire chemical bleaching process (Removing Chlorine)

   -Use less harmful agents such as peroxide, oxygen and hydrosulfide 

By following these recommendations, we were able to reduce that number by 2/3rds to just under 20.


So as you can see, toilet paper is currently not very environmentally friendly, but if the big brands are willing to make these changes, we can drastically reduce this necessary item's impact.