Why should you choose recycled paper?

We know that currently, humans use approximately the equivalent of 22 billion kilometres of toilet paper if you were to lay it out. This is equal to 42 million tonnes or 50,000 times the circumference of the Earth. We are on a mission to make this usage more sustainable, with one option being using toilet paper made from recycled paper.

3 ways using recycled paper helps the environment

There are many good reasons to choose recycled paper, whether for your toilet paper needs or any other paper products, but we’ve chosen these three.

Using recycled paper removes paper waste from landfills.

Paper waste accounts for around 26% of all waste in landfills which is a massive problem for the environment. You might think that paper will just break down, which is technically true, but as it breaks down in landfills, it produces methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. In fact, methane gas is 23 times more harmful than CO2.

Recycled paper uses less water, oil and other raw materials to produce. 

To produce the toilet paper we use each year (42 million tonnes), we use 712 million trees, 1,165 million tonnes of water and 78 million tonnes of oil. If you switched to using recycled paper toilet paper, you’d save millions of tonnes on all these numbers. In fact, producing one tonne of recycled paper uses 35,000 fewer litres of water. The process also uses 31% less energy than when producing virgin fibres.

Paper can be recycled multiple times, helping build a circular economy.

Toilet paper is the only type of paper that can’t be recycled multiple times because it breaks down when you flush it down the toilet. The materials used to make this toilet paper from recycled paper come from paper materials recycled from offices and homes. These paper materials could also have been made from recycled paper and be used to make more paper products. This cycle of recycling and creating can go on multiple times with paper products and help support a circular economy.

Working to minimise the amount of paper that goes into landfills is not just about the trees that get cut down but also about the impact that paper has on the environment when just tossed in the trash. Take the first step by switching to toilet paper made from 100% recycled paper.