Top Takeaways
>> 100% recycled toilet paper is the most eco choice. This is followed by 100% bamboo.
>> The best recycled toilet paper brands in the UK are Serious Tissues, Honest Tissues and Ecoleaf. Naked Sprout and Who Gives A Crap also sell recycled toilet roll.
>> Good bamboo toilet paper brands include The Cheeky Panda, Bazoo and Bumboo.
>> Unbleached rolls are best for the environment
Fed up of using virgin paper from deforested trees as toilet roll? Are you considering a switch to a more eco friendly toilet paper?
I think that’s a great idea. It’s certainly an easy way to be more sustainable at home.
Switching to an eco friendly toilet paper can make such a big difference to your footprint over the long term. Plus there’s no difference in quality at all – not that I’ve found at least.
I’ve personally made the switch to buying more environmentally friendly toilet paper and it’s been great for all the family. The brands below have all been tried and tested by my household.
So, what is the best eco friendly toilet paper and what features should you look out for when buying sustainable toilet rolls? Here’s all you need to know!
Please note, this post contains affiliate links to eco brands that I’ve used and trust. I may earn a small commission on any purchases, which helps with the running costs of this site. This article was updated April 2024.
Quick List of Eco Friendly Toilet Rolls
If you’re looking for a quick list straight off the bat of where you can buy the best eco toilet roll from, then here it is. You can find discount codes too to help you get a better deal.
- Serious Tissues – TINYECO for 20% off
- Honest Supplies – HONESTTINYECO for 12% off
- Ecoleaf
- Cheeky Panda – TINY for 20% off
- Who Gives a Crap – TINYECOHOME for £5 off
- Naked Sprout – TINYECO for 10% off
- Bazoo
- Bumboo – TINYECO10 for 10% off
You can carry on reading below to find out all the details on eco toilet roll and what to look out for.
8 Best Eco Friendly Toilet Paper Options
After the recent bamboo toilet roll debate, I do believe that recycled toilet paper is the best choice for the environment. Especially if it’s UK made recycled toilet roll.
Bamboo toilet paper can still be a good eco alternative, particularly when replacing loo roll that’s contributing to deforestation.
Let’s get into the 8 best eco friendly toilet paper brands on the UK market today.
1. Serious Tissues
Serious Tissues are a carbon neutral toilet paper company who are taking our planetary issues seriously.
These 2 ply, 240 sheet eco-friendly toilet rolls are made in Lincolnshire using 100% recycled paper, contain no plastic at all, no dyes, perfumes or unnecessary chemicals – how’s that for sustainable toilet paper?
For every roll bought, Serious Tissues will also plant a tree.
My family has used Serious Tissues toilet paper and we think it’s genuinely top quality stuff. Probably the best eco friendly toilet paper we’ve tried. You can read more in my Serious Tissues review here.
Use TINYECO for 20% off
2. Honest Supplies
Honest Supplies are a growing UK based company supplying some of the most eco toilet roll out there. They provide carbon negative toilet roll by offsetting 200% of their emissions.
All of their raw paper material comes from local UK recycling plants. It’s not treated with any kind of bleach, whitening agent or chlorine either. Their product is completely plastic free too with the toilet roll coming in a cardboard box.
This makes Honest Supplies one of the best choices for toilet paper. You can read my Honest Supplies review here.
Use HonestTinyEco for 12% off your first order
3. Ecoleaf
Ecoleaf by Suma make soft, 100% recycled toilet paper. All of their toilet rolls are made in the UK. The rolls are packaged in a biodegradable wrapper called Bioplast that’s made from potato starch. This is fully compostable in industrial composting conditions.
These are bleach free, as well as free from dyes, dioxins, organochlorines and other chemicals. Each roll is 2 ply and has 240 sheets, which is a decent number.
4. The Cheeky Panda
The Cheeky Panda create their eco friendly toilet roll using surplus virgin pulp bamboo, which would otherwise go to waste. This is also from FSC bamboo forests and contains only plant-based ingredients.
Alongside being bamboo toilet roll, the Cheeky Panda sell unbleached, bleached and unwrapped versions in boxes of 24 or 48.
They deliver all of their eco toilet roll in 100% plastic free packaging, otherwise known as a simple biodegradable cardboard box. They offer a subscription service for a regular delivery.
Use TINY for 20% off
5. Who Gives a Crap
With its quirky name and quirky packaging, Who Gives a Crap is definitely not your usual toilet roll!
Offering 100% bamboo toilet paper in colourful plastic-free packaging, the Aussie brand also donates as much as 50% of its profits to charities working in sanitation aid.
WGAC also sell recycled toilet rolls that are 3 ply thick and come in rolls of 400 sheets! The recycled paper is sourced locally from schools and offices near to their production facilities.
They are a B Corp certified company and their products are also FSC certified. If you do indeed give a crap, you can read my full Who Gives A Crap review here. You can also read my WGAC vs Naked Sprout comparison.
Use TINYECOHOME for £5 off first subscription order
6. Naked Sprout
Dorset-based Naked Sprout offers ultra-soft, unbleached, and 100% plastic-free toilet rolls made from sustainable bamboo.
They are FSC certified and partnered with the NGO Just A Drop, helping to provide safe fresh water to populations in need with every purchase. They’re also a certified B Corporation company, meaning they hold the planet in the same regard as their profits.
Naked Sprout, like the three brands below, were caught up in a recent investigation into bamboo toilet paper. This looks to be a serious supply chain issue rather than purposeful greenwashing.
You can read my Naked Sprout review here.
Use TINYECO for 10% off
7. Bazoo
Bazoo is recognised as the world’s first carbon-negative toilet paper company. They offer products made from FSC certified bamboo and plastic-free, recyclable packaging.
The company not only offsets emissions but also donates part of its profits to the Rainforest Trust to protect important rainforest habitat across the world. The image below shows their Protected Species range.
Read up on my in-depth Bazoo toilet paper review.
Use code TINYECO for 10%
8. Bumboo
Bumboo offers 100% bamboo-derived toilet paper in a stylish plastic-free packaging, which is also fully recyclable and compostable.
Like most of these eco-friendly brands, you’ll pay a little extra for much better quality but this can be eased by buying in bulk and by signing up to a subscription.
Bumboo is FSC certified and offers carbon-neutral delivery on orders over £20. They also work with Eden Reforestation Projects to plant a tree for every box sold, which is fantastic.
You can read my full Bumboo toilet paper review here.
Use TINYECO10 for 10% off your first order
how normal Toilet roll causes deforestation
The average adult will use 384 trees-worth of toilet roll throughout their lives. That’s a lot isn’t it?
Deforestation is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing the world today. It’s estimated that 10 million trees are cut down every year just for toilet paper! That’s 27,000 trees cut down every day for toilet roll.
The average person in the US goes through 141 rolls a year. In the UK, this is slightly less at 127 rolls.
The effects of deforestation are disastrous and far-reaching. Loss of vegetation is not only a threat to biodiversity but also one of the driving causes of climate change, contributing to ever-rising carbon emissions. You can read up on the UK woodland state here.
As the world is losing almost 6 million hectares of forest each year to deforestation, more eco-conscious consumers are reconsidering their shopping choices when it comes to pulp and paper-derived products.
Changing to an sustainable toilet roll can have a huge positive impact.
Brands to avoid
With deforestation in mind, there are a number of brands to avoid. These companies source virgin paper that comes straight from a felled tree. In 2024, we don’t need to be cutting down trees to make toilet paper.
Avoid these brands if you can:
- Andrex
- Cushelle
- Velvet
- Regina
What makes eco toilet paper?
What exactly do we mean by eco friendly toilet paper?
Generally speaking, more environmentally friendly toilet paper is not only made of sustainable materials like recycled paper but also packaged sustainably. This can be using recycled packaging or, better yet, 100% plastic-free packaging.
On top of that, eco friendly toilet roll tends to be unbleached and chlorine-free. This is because bleaching paper to make it look whiter ends up releasing unnecessary chemicals into our freshwater, contributing to waterway pollution.
Not to mention, using chemically bleached tissue on some of our most intimate areas it’s not great for our health either!
So, to buy eco toilet roll, make sure you look out for:
- Recycled materials
- Plastic free
- Recyclable packaging
- Unbleached
- Chlorine free
Types of eco friendly toilet paper
So, what’s the best eco friendly toilet paper you can buy today to protect forests and lower your carbon footprint? Is there a best eco toilet paper type you can buy?
There are two main types of eco toilet paper available on the market. There is a third type that might start to make in-roads and that we may see more of in the future.
All offer a good way to create environmentally friendly toilet paper.
Recycled paper rolls
Recycled toilet paper is the cheapest and most commonly available alternative to virgin pulp toilet paper.
This option is made from 100% recycled paper, or in some cases, even post-consumer paper. This means that otherwise ‘useless’ paper that cannot be recycled in any other way is saved from the landfill and reused.
Recycled toilet paper offers one of the most sustainable ways to make toilet roll.
Bamboo toilet paper
Recycled paper has its benefits, but we all know that recycling is far from the perfect solution to our climate issue.
So, toilet paper made from bamboo pulp rather than tree pulp is usually considered an even better eco-friendly option. This is because the crop requires a lot less land and time to grow than traditional wood.
Unfortunately, bamboo toilet paper tends to be considerably more expensive than recycled paper options, but on the plus side plant-based products are great if you have a composting toilet!
Wheat straw toilet paper
While not yet widely available, wheat straw toilet paper is a promising new product in the world of sustainable toilet paper. It’s currently going through the last stages of development in Germany.
Using wheat pulp means repurposing leftovers from the agricultural industry, reducing not only waste but also carbon emissions in the process. Putting a ‘waste’ product to good use is always a great, sustainable option. You can have a read on what is wheat straw here.
Is bamboo toilet paper really better for the environment?
Bamboo toilet paper is considered the most environmentally sustainable of all alternative options. It’s said to produce 30% less GHG emissions than recycled paper and 65% less carbon compared to traditional loo rolls.
However, it does have to be shipped all the way from China. For this reason, recycled paper from local sources may be better in terms of carbon emissions.
Using bamboo pulp is also a good choice when it comes to reducing the effects of deforestation and habitat loss. Bamboo takes mere weeks to grow as opposed to the years of growing that trees require, while not needing nearly as much land.
This means that bamboo is one of the most sustainable crops when it comes to both land use and emissions! You can read up fully on if bamboo is eco friendly here.
That said, there have also been some issues that UK toilet paper brands have faced with their bamboo supply chains. Check out this write up on the bamboo toilet roll scandal.
What to look out for when buying sustainable toilet paper?
Still, this doesn’t mean that all bamboo toilet paper brands are equal when it comes to their eco-credentials.
There are some key features you should keep in mind whenever you are shopping for eco-friendly toilet paper to ensure you are actually supporting sustainable practices.
- FSC Certified paper – the most important thing you should look out for is a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. This is a seal of approval certifying that the bamboo fibres were grown sustainably. In this case, ‘sustainably’ means that no forest land has been cut down to make room for bamboo crops,
- No plastic packaging – make sure your new loo roll comes in plastic free packaging. Common alternatives include packaging made from paper or recycled materials.
- No chlorine and other toxic chemicals have been used throughout the production process. This is harder, and sometimes impossible, to figure out when you’re in a shop looking at the shelves. This is why it’s a good idea to already have the eco toilet paper brands in mind you want to buy from.
- Unbleached – don’t let the colour put you off, you’ll get used to it. White toilet roll is only for the aesthetics.
My verdict on eco friendly toilet roll
And there we are, 8 of the best eco friendly toilet papers available right now.
Are you now ready to embrace the climate-positive world of eco friendly toilet paper?
In my view, the best sustainable toilet paper I’ve tried is from Serious Tissues.
It’s all made in the UK using recycled paper, which are both environmentally friendly choices. You can use the code TINYECO for 20% off your first order.
Whether you’ll stick to the more affordable recycled paper loo rolls or give sustainable bamboo toilet paper a try, every little change will have a huge impact on our forests and the environment at large.
Thanks for reading and keep up the good work!
