Why we don’t manufacture in Australia… yet
A question we get asked all the time is why we don’t manufacture in Australia when some other toilet paper companies do. We love questions! But even more than questions, we love answers.
The short answer is that manufacturing in Australia would increase our current carbon footprint because we’d have to import raw materials from overseas, then truck products all around Australia. Yikes!
That doesn’t mean that we’ll stop searching for better solutions – we’re always looking for ways to manufacture domestically while also lowering our carbon footprint. Right now, we just can’t find a way to do that. Until we can, let’s clear a few things up with the long answer…
What does ‘Made in Australia’ actually mean?
When it comes to toilet paper, the claim ‘Made in Australia’ can be misleading. When companies tell you that, it doesn’t necessarily mean their raw materials come from Australia or that they make their product completely in Australia. We’ve found that when it comes to toilet paper, the majority of traditional TP manufacturers and some of the most vocal recycled TP brands are importing materials, ingredients and partly manufactured products from overseas, and only entering the final stage of production in Australia.
Then how can brands claim that they’re ‘Made in Australia’?
Well, because they’re allowed to. These companies meet the necessary requirements for the claim — the end product is fundamentally different (or ‘substantially transformed’) from its imported parts, even though they’re partly manufacturing or importing materials from overseas.
What about the claims ‘Manufactured in Australia’ or ‘Aussie Made’?
It’s the same thing as ‘Made in Australia’ just with different wording.
Where does ‘Produced in Australia’ fit in?
‘Produced in Australia’ or ‘Grown in Australia’ can be used by brands when virtually all their raw materials or ingredients are from Australia and virtually all their production happens in Australia. You might notice it’s harder to find an Australian toilet paper company with this claim.
Why don’t you make the end product in Australia so you can use the claim too?
When we first started, we didn’t manufacture domestically because we couldn’t find partners who were willing or able to meet our requirements — wrapping rolls individually in paper, not plastic.
But times have changed, as have the offerings of local manufacturing partners. For example, some can now wrap rolls without plastic. However, one of our big focuses is looking at ways to minimise our carbon emissions. We found that if we imported raw materials from overseas to produce our rolls in Australia, like most other local brands, our product transportation would cause around 25% greater carbon emissions when compared to our current process — yes, that’s right, a whopping 25% increase! This is due to the increased trucking (10x higher carbon emissions than ships) that would be required to get our products from a single domestic converting location to customers who are spread all around our, frankly massive, country.
So, where do you manufacture?
After a lot (and we mean A LOT) of thoughtful consideration, we’ve continued to foster the producer relationships we set up in China in the early years of Who Gives a Crap’s business. There’s a bit of a misconception about production in China, which we think is important to address. We work closely with our producers to ensure standards and processes we’re happy with, plus we found that China offers a lot of wonderful benefits:
We have access to a large pool of local, raw materials – both post consumer waste paper and bamboo (neither of which is readily available in Australia at our scale). This is efficient from a transport perspective because the raw material doesn’t need to travel to be converted. Many of our competitors who say ‘Made in Australia’ get their raw materials from other countries, including China, but then they ship them to Australia. In some cases, Australian forests are even exported as wood chips to Asia for the early stages of processing into pulp, only to be shipped back to Australia for the final stages of tissue manufacturing.
Our partners take care of their team members, which has always been a priority. In fact, all our partners are independently audited and scored across a range of categories including workers’ rights, no discrimination, no child labour, no precarious employment, no bonded labour and overall ethical business behaviours.
We sea freight our product into Australia on boats, which are up to 10x more carbon efficient than trucks. That means that our products can travel about 10,000 km on a boat (which is more than the distance between China and all of Australia) and have the same transport footprint as travelling 1000 km (which is slightly more than travelling from Sydney to Brisbane or Melbourne) in a truck.
If you'd like to learn more about how we responsibly produce in China, check out this article on our blog.
Can I have a fun fact?
All of our shipping (from the factory to your door) is now completely carbon neutral. It’s a win for us, for you and for the planet. You can read more about our commitment to carbon neutral shipping here and here.
Will you ever manufacture locally?
We would love to! As we grow and scale our business, we’re continuing to look at ways to manufacture domestically in all our regions.
As of 2023, we make products in the UK and the US for customers who are located in, well, the UK and the US. We are working to identify even more opportunities to expand local production capabilities without sacrificing sustainable business practices in other markets, like Australia, so watch this space.
What other actions are you taking?
We’re continuing to have conversations as we look for the right domestic manufacturing partners in Australia. Through our conversations to date, we’ve learned a thing or two (or three).
We have to be patient to find the right situation and partner that aligns with our needs, like only using recycled materials.
Much of the raw materials used by ‘Made in Australia’ brands actually come from overseas. If we decide to manufacture in Australia, we’d prefer to use domestic materials, and there isn’t a viable path forward for us to do this right now.
We haven’t found a manufacturing facility that can make as much recycled toilet paper as we want to sell. And we absolutely want to keep making and selling 100% recycled toilet paper. (It’s kinda our thing.)
Is there anything I can do?
Get a snack, that was a lot of reading you just did.
We also encourage you to ask brands who say ‘Made in Australia’ where they purchase their raw materials, and what it means for their carbon footprint. That way, you can continue to make informed choices about the brands you consume.
Phew. We know that was a lot of information, but we hope that helps you make an informed choice about the products you buy from us. These are important questions to be asking of companies (and companies to be asking themselves), so thank you for taking the time to ask them.
