Bamboo Toilet Paper

 Bamboo Toilet Paper: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Why is this swap necessary?

Almost all toilet roll is made out of 100% virgin trees. The removal of trees not only means they can't take in carbon dioxide, but also released the carbon dioxide currently stored. It isn't as simple as planting new trees; not only do they take over 30 years to fully grow, but the damage caused by clearing forests makes the soil worse to grow on. This is the same issue that arises when forests are cut down for animal grazing. Additionally, the process of making trees into soft tissue takes a lot of energy.

Bamboo on the other hand is the worlds fastest growing plant, growing up to 3 foot in one day. It takes in 35% more Carbon Dioxide, and produces 30% more oxygen than trees. Because of the fast growth rate, there is a large surplus of bamboo. The Cheeky Panda (the company that I bought the toilet roll from) turns the excess into toilet roll, saving it from otherwise being discarded. There are 10 different types of bamboo and the one sourced for the toilet paper isn't even consumed by pandas.

Additionally, bamboo is naturally hypoallergenic and traps fewer dust particles, this makes bamboo better for sensitive skin. It is no wonder that bamboo is increasingly used as an alternative to wood and plastic.

My Swap

I bought a 9 pack of 3 ply rolls for £5. This works out as 27p per 100 sheets. This was on the lower end of the price range for the big brands which cost between 25-35p per 100 sheets. However, as expected, these were more expensive than the own brands which were between 15-25p per 100 sheets.

The toilet roll lasted 5 days in a bathroom used by two people plus some visitors. To give perspective, out of the total 10 days, 6 were working from home/ weekend days.

Unlike most tree based toilet roll, all the bamboo companies I have seen are wrapped in recyclable paper, along with the inner tube. This means you're not just reducing the amount of trees being cut down and energy used in manufacturing, but also plastic waste.

My Findings

While I can not say that this is the same for all bamboo toilet roll, there are only two differences I noticed from The Cheeky Panda's toilet roll:

• It is less cushioned than the big brands.

The 'cushion level' is about on par, or slightly more than own brand toilet rolls. Personally this is not something I want from my toilet paper so not something that bothered me.

• It is sturdier than most own brand toilet roll.

While potentially slightly less sturdy than name brands, it is definitely more so than most own brands. You may be paying more, but you can definitely tell that it's better than the very cheap ones.

In practice, I found these differences made no noticeable change in quality from the toilet roll I had already been using. (I don't use main brand toilet roll.) When I asked how others how they had found it, no one had not noticed the swap. From those who knew I had changed it before trying commented that "it was very soft", "had no complaints" and still "didn't notice a difference".

A review online had said they thought the paper had blocked their toilet. This lead to a primary school level experiment: 2 sheets of bamboo vs 2 sheets of normal toilet paper in a jar with water both shaken for 90 seconds. From this very scientific experiment, I found no noticeable difference between the two.

Until recently I was frustrated that most bamboo companies are only online, with minimum packs containing 24 rolls. Although per roll this a cheaper way of buying, it seemed an excessive amount of toilet paper, especially if you want to try it out before committing to a bulk buy. Therefore, I was very glad when I saw The Cheeky Panda appear in Waitrose and Morrisons.

Conclusion

I would definitely recommend this bamboo toilet rolls. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the price difference was much smaller than I had originally predicted. This is a very easy step to reduce your environmental impact, making no notable difference to yourself, but saving trees. In fact, it could even save you some money too.

I hope that more companies will soon feature supermarkets, making this bamboo alternative more accessible and inevitably cheaper.

The only reason I reduced this review from five stars to four is that difference in cushion feel. Personally this does not reduce my liking of it, however if this is a preference of yours then you may not be as satisfied.