Wow it has been a while, two months since my last blog, how lazy am I? To be fair I have been working on another project that has taken up my writing time but that is another story (literally).
So let’s talk crap, or more specifically the toilet roll we use to get rid of our crap. Not the sexiest of topics (unless you are into that kind of thing) but it really does apply to everyone and it is a very basic day to day, wipe to wipe, eco swap opportunity.
The first thing I want to say on this topic is don’t flush wipes! Any kind of wipes, seriously don’t do it, it blocks up your toilet system, it blocks up the sewerage system and they are really bad for the environment and can end up in the sea. No sea dweller or human wants to swim around in a sea of wipes covered in poo, really, just think of a fresh one slapping you in the face as you bob in the sea snogging that sexy Spanish waiter on your holidays, that is a mood killer right there. And I really hope I don’t have to tell you to not flush condoms and sanitary products, even worse. Here is a picture of a fatberg just to drive home my point!
If you need something moist then think about installing a bidet, wet some kind of organic cotton and use that to clean up, then pop it in the washer or buy eco friendly chemical free and degradable wipes that can go in the bin.
I have tried out a variety of different toilet roll options over the last few months so I will review each one. First up the aptly named Who Gives a Crap.
I have seen this one mentioned a lot on other eco blogs and instagram accounts so it had to be tried. I ordered three rolls as part of my larger Peace With The Wild order.
The price varies slightly depending on where you get it from and how much your order but as per usual the sting is in the delivery costs, this is why I prefer eco products to be available in the main stream shops, less cost for me and more convenient. Peace With The Wild do an offer where you get three rolls for £3, so £1 per roll but you then get £5 off your first full order direct with Who Gives a Crap.
Now I don’t know about you that seems really expensive to me. However the whole point of this company is not to just wipe your bum but to help bums all over the world, see their blurb below:
We’re determined to prove that toilet paper is about more than just wiping bums. We make all of our products with environmentally friendly materials, and we donate 50% of our profits to help build toilets for those in need. To date we’ve donated over $1.8m Aussie dollars (that’s the equivalent of over £1,000,000!) to charity and saved a heck of a lot of trees, water and energy. Not bad for a toilet paper company, eh?
Yes that is impressive, and of course my favourite part is the fact that each roll is wrapped in funky paper that can be recycled, no plastic!
So does it do the job? Erm, I hate to say it but we really didn’t like it! I made the change without informing my husband and five year old daughter and both of them commented on how ‘crap’ the new toilet roll was and I have to agree. There is nothing quality about the paper itself which you kind expect of recycled paper toilet roll but the fact that I had to use twice as much as normal because it is so thin, made the cost of it even more a concern for me. Looking at their website they also offer a premium version made from bamboo (personally I would have called this the bumboo option) but I think the basic one is already too expensive. I feel bad, I wanted to like this one, what the company is doing is excellent and I truly applaud their efforts but it is not for me. As you know my swaps have to be reasonably practical, convenient and ideally not a really expensive swap so this does not tick my boxes.
Next up something available in a main stream shop, a Tesco offering.
The cost is £3.35 for 9 rolls so the cheapest of the options I have tried and no delivery cost if you are buying as part of your normal shop. It is made from recycled paper and the country of origin is Portugal, they don’t really provide much more information than that but there is some information on the rear that directs consumers to recycle the outer plastic packaging along with their plastic carrier bags at your larger Tesco store. Great idea but for me personally recycling plastic is not a solution, no plastic packaging in the first place should be the ultimate goal. I noticed no difference with this to any other Tesco branded toilet roll so it definitely does the jobs and it is convenient.
The final ones is ecoleaf toilet roll. I have used a lot of other ecoleaf products and I spotted this one in a local Organic Health Food shop near me called The Honey Tree in Heaton. So I again avoided any delivery charge. If you live local (Newcastle) then please check out their shop, it is packed full of great food and lots of eco products, they also have a small refill section for some dried foods and things like liquid detergent.
I have no idea how much I paid, I am normally quite good at keeping track of stuff like that but I didn’t get an itemized receipt and it was a few weeks ago. Looking on the internet the cheapest I can find this size for is £4.75 for 9 rolls but then there would be delivery on top, so you will need to do some research to find the best overall price on the web. Again you can see it is cheaper than the Who Gives a Crap option but more than the Tesco. However I can practically hear you scream again it is covered in plastic! Check out the blurb below, this kind of thing makes me smile:
In 1986 Ecoleaf from Suma launched the UK’s first 100% Recycled Paper Toilet Tissue, since then they’ve continued to develop the range. Products now come in 100% compostable wrap, making the packaging sustainable, renewable, non-polluting and non-toxic. All Ecoleaf paper products are made from 100% recycled fibre sourced exclusively within the UK. Manufactured from 60% plus post-consumer waste supply streams, collected by local authorities, kerb side collections and bona fide waste merchants. The remaining waste fibre is made up from UK manufacturers’ waste such as printers’ trim and greeting card manufacturers’ waste. No chlorine-based chemistry is used in the production process. Sourced and then manufactured in the UK, every effort is made to maximise loads and minimise road miles.
For me angels were singing accompanied by bum trumpets whilst reading that, this is the kind of approach I love! They are thinking about all the angles and I feel confident it is a true eco swap with no compromises. Yes, more expensive than my major bulk buy mainstream toilet roll with a voucher from JTF (my previous go to option), but it isn’t a huge cost difference and it ticks pretty much every one of my demanding boxes. Squeaky bum moment, did I like using it? Put it this way I forgot we were trying out a new toilet roll and there were zero comments from the ecolass family members. Well done ecoleaf, I salute you.
So my plan is to bulk buy the ecoleaf one, with the Tesco option as an emergency back up as I do have a Tesco local to me and I tend to be in there quite regular.
Our bums deserve to be eco friendly too, even if it just counteracts the gasses they produce. Please comment if you have used any other brand and what you thought.
Eco Lass 