We like to point out all the things we’re doing to make Naked Paper loo roll more sustainable than standard toilet paper, from renewable biofuels to recycling cardboard boxes. But what about what we’re not doing?

Some strange things can end up in your common bathroom toilet paper. Today, we’re lifting the lid on a few of them.

Formaldehyde in toilet paper

Formaldehyde has been used to preserve flowers and laboratory samples, create wrinkle-resistant fabrics, and to produce industrial glues and resins. It's a known skin irritant and exposure to formaldehyde has been linked with various health problems. Why on earth is it in toilet paper?

Well, it’s not because of the glues. Although some weird glues do end up in toilet paper (more on that in a moment), manufacturers who use formaldehyde are taking advantage of its properties as a preservative. Specifically, formaldehyde allows material to stay strong even in a softened state. This is useful for toilet paper manufacturers who offer very cushioned, "quilted" roll, and some will add it to their mix. 

Just to be clear, Naked Paper contains absolutely no formaldehyde. 

Gelatin glue makes non-vegan loo rolls

Tissue, like any type of paper, is made from tiny bits of fibre that have been mixed with water and then dried in sheets. Pulping, pressing, and drying paper sticks the fibres together naturally; a process called “cellulose bonding.” For paper made from single sheets, that natural process is all you need.

But most tissue products, like toilet paper, tissues, or kitchen rolls, are made from multiple thin layers (plies) that are glued together. These glued strips of tissue are also stuck down to the inner tube and secured at the end with a bit of glue for good measure.

At Naked Paper, we use a natural adhesive derived from pine sap to do the job of sticking our plies together, but not all toilet paper shares our plant-based approach. It’s not at all unusual for companies to use gelatin - a glue derived from boiling animal bones - for the sticky bits of loo roll manufacture. So if you’re vegan and you’re not sure, it’s best to check.

Coal used for drying tissue

Okay, this doesn't feature in the paper itself, but as we’re always pointing out, the most intensive part of making tissue is drying it, so fuel is always a relevant part of the picture.

At Naked Paper, the fuel we use to dry our tissue comes from sources that renew naturally in the area around our factory. We use agricultural waste from local sheep farms for biomethane, and we also make use of forest floor debris - twigs, leaves, and bark that are swept up as part of regional wildfire prevention.

But we’re very unusual in the world of tissue and papermaking. Most companies get the very intense heat they need to dry their paper from fossil fuels. 

In most cases, this is natural gas extracted through fracking, drilling, and acidising rock. Natural gas extraction is damaging to the environment and burning it adds to climate change.

But it gets worse: if your toilet paper is made further afield in tissue production hotspots like China, there’s a decent chance the drying furnaces are being fuelled by coal, and that the electricity they use is generated by burning coal as well. Of the the three big fossil fuels, coal emits the most greenhouse gases (twice as much as natural gas) and other toxic pollutants to boot.

Perfumed toilet paper, anyone?

We wish we were making this one up. A classic business move is to diversify a range by adding more products. We’ve done this ourselves; people loved our recycled toilet paper made from cardboard boxes and packaging paper so we started selling recycled kitchen rolls and tissues made the same way. Our recycled products have the lowest climate footprint in our range, so it’s a win all round, and we’re happy to be able to use up more waste packaging materials from the area around our factory.

But some companies have taken the idea of diversification into strange territory. Not satisfied with balm-infused or dyed toilet paper, manufacturers have started to offer scented toilet paper.

As a company who thinks bleaching toilet paper to make it white is a step too far, we’re sure you can imagine our thoughts. We’d like to gently remind our peers what toilet paper is actually made for, and call into question the common sense of spraying perfume on it.

Adding perfume to toilet paper increases the amount of chemicals that must be produced and transported, adds complexity to the process, and introduces more elements to the ingredients list.

We’ll take ours unscented, thanks.

Conclusion

Okay, so there you have it. Weird things in toilet paper, volume one. Hopefully, we won’t need a volume two, but the toilet paper industry changes more rapidly than you might think, so you never know.

If you’d like to hear about the things that do go into making Naked Paper, you can have a read of our ingredients list, or find more information about our renewable fuel here. 

And if you’d like simple, unbleached toilet paper that’s transparent to the core (not literally), take a look at our shop.