Not all toilet rolls are created equal. When it comes to picking your toilet paper, there’s more to consider than just comfort — namely, your health and the environment.
While most rolls are bleached to achieve that bright white, the process of making bleached toilet paper often involves harmful chemicals. Unbleached options offer a safer, more eco-friendly alternative by skipping these harsh chemicals altogether.
Ready to get even nerdier? Let’s explore the benefits and drawbacks of different bleaching methods and why either unbleached toilet paper or low-impact whitening might be the better choice for your health and the planet.
What is bleached toilet paper?
Bleached toilet paper undergoes a chemical process to achieve its white colour. This bleaching process typically involves using chemicals to brighten up pulp fibres derived from wood or recycled paper.
This process helps lighten the appearance of toilet paper, but the harsh chemicals involved raise concerns for both human health and the environment.
Why do companies bleach toilet paper?
The real reason most companies bleach toilet paper comes down to customer expectations – some people get weirded out when their loo rolls aren’t sparkly white. While not actually necessary for hygiene, people associate white with cleanliness.
What is bad about bleached toilet paper?
Some bleaching processes involve harsh chemicals, like dioxins. Dioxins are highly toxic to human health. They can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, interfere with hormones and damage the immune system. Big yuck.
Even when you aren't directly ingesting them, dioxins can still enter your body through contact with the skin — including by way of your bum. With traditionally bleached toilet paper, you’re exposing yourself to dioxins with every square you touch.
What are the different types of bleached toilet paper?
Companies create bleached toilet paper through a few different processes, using chemicals like:
Elemental Chlorine (EC)
Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF)
Processed Chlorine Free (PCF)
Totally Chlorine Free (TCF)
Though they may all feature the ch-word, these whitening processes aren’t the same — and every method has different implications for the environment and human health.
What is elemental chlorine (EC) bleaching?
Elemental chlorine bleaching is a process that involves bombarding pulp with chlorine gas to strip away its natural colour. This type of bleaching is unhealthy for people or the planet. The process creates toxic by-products like furans and dioxins, chemically related compounds that are environmental pollutants and pose significant environmental and health risks.
Because of this, many paper manufacturers are moving towards methods that are kinder to the environment and safer for people.
What is elemental chlorine-free (ECF) bleaching?
Elemental chlorine-free bleaching is an advanced paper production method that skips the chlorine gas part. ECF favours chlorine dioxide, a process that’s much better for the environment.
Maybe you noticed that chlorine dioxide has “diox” in its name — good eye! Fortunately, it’s not a dioxin. Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) is an effective chemical compound used for bleaching and disinfecting. It has a lower environmental and health impact than other bleaching agents (when used properly).
According to the American Forest and Paper Association, 95% of global pulp production employs this method. That means that ECF bleaching is probably responsible for most of the pristine white toilet paper you’re accustomed to.
What is processed chlorine-free (PCF) toilet paper?
Processed chlorine-free toilet paper is crafted from recycled paper or wood pulp that hasn’t used chlorine-based bleaching agents during its most recent round of production.
While recycled paper may have been bleached on its first go around, PCF uses alternatives like oxygen, ozone or hydrogen peroxide to bring it back to its bright white hue.
These eco-friendly methods reduce the release of harmful chemicals, making PCF toilet paper a much better choice for your health and the environment.
What is Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) toilet paper?
Totally chlorine-free toilet paper refers to products whitened without using any chlorine or chlorine-based compounds, including chlorine dioxide.
The TCF process relies on alternative bleaching agents with less environmental impact, such as oxygen, ozone or hydrogen peroxide.
Similar to PCF, TCF toilet paper has never been exposed to chlorine or chlorine-based compounds during its production — making it a more environmentally friendly option.
What is unbleached toilet paper?
Elemental chlorine and elemental chlorine-free bleaching are not the same as unbleached toilet paper. Unbleached toilet paper is au naturel, meaning it’s not bleached at all.
It maintains the natural colour of the paper fibres, typically brown, and is often considered among the most environmentally friendly options because it avoids using bleaching chemicals altogether.
What are the different types of unbleached toilet paper?
Recycled unbleached toilet paper is made from recycled materials that may have been bleached in their previous lifetimes, but are not bleached again during recycling. It typically has a natural brown or gray colour because the original fibres retain some previous treatments.
Virgin wood unbleached toilet paper is made directly from raw wood. This paper retains its natural off-white or beige colour. Virgin wood pulp is generally lighter than recycled paper because it hasn't been previously processed or mixed with other materials or ink.
Bamboo unbleached toilet paper uses bamboo fibres, which are naturally lighter in colour than wood pulp. This paper can remain unbleached or be processed with eco-friendly methods like hydrogen peroxide. Bamboo fibres tend to be closer to a natural light beige, offering an eco-friendly and softer option.
How is chlorine dioxide used for whitening?
Chlorine dioxide is used in paper production to whiten wood pulp without relying on harsh elemental chlorine gas. It removes the dark stuff in wood (lignin) while keeping the fibrous parts intact.
While chlorine dioxide also has “chlorine” in its name, its chemistry differs radically from that of chlorine. This process minimises harmful by-products like dioxins, resulting in better-quality paper that's kinder to the environment and our health.
In other words, it gives us stronger, brighter paper without the harmful side effects.
Is chlorine dioxide the same thing as bleach?
Chlorine dioxide and bleach are different. The name of the chemical compound for bleach is actually sodium hypochlorite. While both are used for whitening and disinfecting, bleach is less eco-friendly and releases toxic chemicals.
Chlorine dioxide is a gas that dissolves in water without forming harmful by-products. It’s a safer choice because it’s less corrosive and works well at lower concentrations.
How is hydrogen peroxide used to whiten toilet paper?
Unlike chemical bleaching with chlorine or chlorine dioxide, hydrogen peroxide works its magic by breaking down into water and oxygen. This clean process leaves no nasty residue or harmful by-products, making it safer and more eco-friendly.
What’s the difference between bleached and unbleached toilet paper?
Bleached toilet paper uses chemicals like chlorine or chlorine dioxide to achieve a bright white colour. This method may pose health risks and environmental concerns.
Unbleached toilet paper skips the chemical bleaching process, keeping its natural brown or off-white colour. This reduces health risks associated with chemical exposure and minimizes environmental impact by avoiding the release of harmful substances into the ecosystem.
Bleached paper boasts a brighter look, while unbleached options are gentler on the environment, your health and sometimes even your wallet.
Conclusion: Choose toilet paper without heavy processing
Bleached toilet paper gets its white colour through a chemical process but with potential costs to health and the environment. Companies bleach it to meet consumer expectations for cleanliness, even though it involves harmful chemicals like dioxins.
Different bleaching methods — elemental chlorine, elemental chlorine-free, processed chlorine-free, and totally chlorine-free — vary in their impact on health and the environment.
Unbleached toilet paper keeps its natural colour, offering a safer, more eco-friendly choice. When picking between bleached and unbleached toilet paper, it’s all about weighing the health and environmental impact to make a decision that’s better for you and the planet.
Because we care about your bum and the beauty of your bathroom, we choose gentler ways to whiten our rolls, using lower-impact chemicals.
Our so-loo-tion? Who Gives A Crap’s recycled toilet paper is whitened using hydrogen peroxide, while our bamboo toilet paper uses a combo of hydrogen peroxide with chlorine dioxide. It’s the best of both worlds, for our world.