So what’s the deal with bamboo toilet paper? We get this question all the time (so does Google) and we wanted to put together a little bamblog post to answer all your burning bamboo questions.
But first, why bamboo?
We do it for the trees. Did you know bamboo is technically a grass? It’s the world’s fastest growing plant and some species can grow up to a metre in one day. Woah! It takes years for most trees to reach that height — which is exactly why we use bamboo plants as a raw material for our toilet paper.
Around the globe, virgin trees are being destroyed at an incredibly unsustainable pace. Unlike trees, bamboo is a sustainable and renewable resource that requires less space and less water to grow, making it an efficient and eco-friendly choice for toilet paper.
So, how does it go from bamboo → bathroom?
Simple! Ok, it’s not really that simple and it’s actually very similar to processing virgin wood — this is because bamboo fibres actually look and behave just like their virgin wood counterparts. Bamboo toilet paper manufacturing involves a lot of technical terms like tensile strength, yankee drums and brooming — so we thought we’d simplify the manufacturing process for you. Here is everything you need to know about bamboo toilet paper production.
1. Firstly, we harvest and chop the bamboo stalks into chips before the pulping process begins.
2. The bamboo chips are then treated in a digester for multiple hours. In this process, we use a mixture of heat and water to break down and isolate the fibres. While other processes (for products like wet wipes or nappies) rely on harsh chemicals to break down their raw materials, there are no chemical nasties needed to extract the fibres we rely on. Fun fact – any waste created during this process is used as fuel for energy generation!
3. This soupy bamboo and water mix still needs a bit more cleaning before the fibres are soft and white enough for your bottom. The fibres are washed and whitened in washing machines of hydrogen peroxide and elemental free chlorine. Now we have bamboo pulp that’s suitable for making tissue paper!
Not so fun fact – most virgin tree pulp is shipped across the world before even being made into tissue – just adding to its environmental footprint.
4. In our world, the pulp is either transported in dry form to a nearby mother roll factory or made into tissue immediately (the mother roll is like a super huge roll of TP). To do this, the liquid pulp mix is sprayed onto belts where water is pressed out using steam generated via solar power. The belt then deposits the semi-wet mix over a giant hot rotating drum which bonds the fibres and forms soft tissue paper.
5. After testing for softness and strength (among other things), we combine three mother rolls to make one long 3-ply log, adding embossing and perforations in the process. The pressure used when embossing our TP pattern is actually what holds together each ply of paper — that means no glue or animal-based substances, which makes our TP vegan, baby!
Lastly, our elongated roll (or log, as we call them) is cut into the perfect, bathroom-friendly size. Then we individually wrap and pack the rolls into boxes for our customers… like you!
Bamboo paper and paper towels are part of our growing range of sustainable household products. Our bamboo toilet paper is better for the environment than regular, unrecycled toilet paper Wonderful softness, and a positive environmental impact? Talk about a win-win!
Interesting! But is bamboo TP as soft as traditional toilet paper?
Eco-friendly toilet paper doesn’t have to feel like a bag of granola. Our sustainable materials make for a super strong and soft toilet paper that’s been loved by hundreds of thousands of bums.
Want to help reduce deforestation and give our bamboo TP a try? Great! Order yours today! (And, while you're at it, don't forget to check out 100% recycled toilet paper too!)
