Plastic free toilet paper
Plastic free toilet paper is not the most glamorous blog subject but it had to be written! It took a while (several years in fact!) but we have finally found plastic free toilet paper, sourced and made in the UK. We believe it is the best choice for our business and for the planet.
Greenwashing
There is so much greenwashing when it comes to sourcing eco-friendly products for our homes and our businesses, and the cut-throat recycled toilet paper market is no different.
You have to be careful to make sure you aren’t taken in by hype and half truths. It can become a full time job researching products and checking and rechecking the facts.
In the past
We source our eco-friendly cleaning products from Greencity in Glasgow, who supply in bulk, enabling us to reduce packaging and delivery mileage. They are a worker’s Cooperative and everyone who works for them is paid a fair living wage and is committed to good environmental practice. We always sourced our toilet paper for the cottages from them. Huge slabs of recycled toilet paper rolls, made by Suma, another workers cooperative. Made from UK sourced recycled paper. And made in the UK. Unfortunately though packaged in plastic.
I contacted Suma and asked if they were going to find an alternative wrapping to the plastic. They said they were working on it. But a couple of years later, the rolls were still arriving wrapped in plastic. So I kept looking for alternatives. But on digging deeper each time I would find that something wasn’t quite as green as it seemed at first glance. It might have been that the individually paper wrapped toilet rolls were made of Chinese waste paper, manufactured there, then shipped to the UK. Or that the paper was made from Bamboo grown in China. Too much shipping. No support for UK industry. Not using UK waste paper. Not supporting a UK workforce.
And now
We have finally found recycled toilet paper which is made in the UK, from UK sourced waste paper. Delivered to your door in recycled cardboard boxes. Plastic? – no. Unnecessary individual wrappers? – no. And no shipping half way round the world. Plus the paper itself is good quality, soft and strong.
Serious Tissues
Our choice is Serious Tissues. Have a look at their website. See what you think. It is a more expensive product than we used before, but it feels good to have, at last, found a product which ticks all our boxes.
Trees
Oh, and they support reforestation projects around the world and plant a tree for every roll of toilet paper they sell. (Now I want to find out more about the organisations they partner with, just to make double sure that isn’t greenwashing! I will let you know).
