When we think about water, we tend to think about what comes out of the tap. Shorter showers. Turning the tap off while brushing our teeth. Watering the garden wisely.
But water connects to much more than what we use at home.
That’s the message behind National Water Week, 19–25 October and this year’s theme, Water Connects Everything. It’s an opportunity to look at the water story behind the everyday things we eat, wear, make and use. (nationalwaterweek.org)
Including something as everyday as toilet paper.
What does water have to do with toilet paper?
Quite a lot.
Water is used throughout pulp and paper manufacturing, from processing plant fibres through to producing the finished paper. The amount used varies according to the fibre, mill and manufacturing process, but the pulp and paper industry is a significant industrial user of water and producer of wastewater. (sciencedirect.com)
And that means the water story behind a roll of toilet paper isn’t only about where its fibre was grown.
How that fibre is processed matters too.
Bleaching toilet paper adds another water-using process
Paper fibres don’t naturally start out bright white.
To create the familiar white toilet paper many of us are used to seeing, conventional pulp can go through bleaching processes designed to remove colour and brighten the fibre.
Depending on the process used, pulp bleaching can involve multiple chemical stages. Chlorine and chlorine-based compounds have historically been used in pulp bleaching, although the industry has increasingly moved towards processes designed to reduce their environmental impact. Research into pulp manufacturing identifies bleaching as an important area when looking at both water use and the pollutants found in mill wastewater. (sciencedirect.com)
Which raises a simple question:
Does toilet paper actually need to be white?
We don’t think it does.
Why Oobamboo leaves the bleach out
At Oobamboo, we chose to leave our bamboo toilet paper naturally unbleached.
Instead of using chemical bleaching agents to change the natural colour of the bamboo fibres, our manufacturer uses a much slower process.
The bamboo pulp is naturally fermented in bulk piles, where sun and humidity are given time to do their work before the pulp is turned into paper. Oobamboo toilet paper is then left its natural warm colour rather than being chemically bleached simply to make it white.
It takes longer.
But some shortcuts just aren’t worth taking.
Made Slowly. On Purpose.
Our toilet paper is made without bleach, chlorine, BPA or added dyes.
For us, National Water Week is a good reminder that sustainability isn’t only about how much water goes into making something.
It’s also worth thinking about what goes into that water during production.
By choosing not to chemically bleach our bamboo pulp, we avoid adding a bleaching stage simply to achieve bright white paper. That matters because bleaching processes can contribute chemicals and pollutants to pulp-mill wastewater, with the impact depending on the bleaching technology being used. (sciencedirect.com)
Sometimes doing less is the point.
Why bamboo makes sense when we think about water
Water is part of growing any plant-based fibre, so how often that fibre can be renewed and harvested matters.
Once a bamboo plantation is established and mature, new culms grow from the existing underground rhizome system each year. In a well-managed stand, mature culms can be selectively harvested each year while younger culms continue growing for future harvests. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
That’s very different from many of the eucalyptus plantations grown for pulp and paper, which are typically grown for around 5–7 years before harvest. (sciencedirect.com)
So when we think about water, it isn’t only about how much a plant uses on any one day or in any one year. It’s also about what that water helps us produce over time.
A mature bamboo plantation can keep producing new growth and providing harvestable fibre year after year, without waiting another 5–7 years for the next crop of trees to reach harvest age.
For an everyday product like toilet paper that needs a constant supply of fibre, that rapid and recurring renewal is one of the reasons we chose bamboo.
Water connects everything
National Water Week reminds us that water is connected to far more than the water we can see.
It connects to how our food is grown.
How our clothes are made.
How materials are processed.
And yes, even how our toilet paper is made.
You might not be able to see the water that went into making the products in your bathroom. But you can ask better questions about what they’re made from, how they’re processed and what has been added along the way.
At Oobamboo, our answer is to keep it simple:
100% bamboo pulp. Naturally unbleached. No bleach. No chlorine. No BPA. No added dyes.
Because white toilet paper isn’t something we think is worth taking shortcuts for.