A Thousand and One Toilet Rolls...

When my supermarket of choice (not naming any names) spontaneously stopped stocking their own-brand recycled toilet roll, I knew I had to find an alternative. Using my trusty number one resource, Ethical Consumer, I took a look at my options, and Who Gives a Crap appeared, quite highly regarded as a good choice to make. I'd heard of them in passing before, but hadn't considered choosing them until I read on...

Who Gives a Crap are a subscription service for toilet roll (!) with two choices of paper available - neither made from trees, nor using any inks, dyes, or scents (I will never understand scented loo roll)! Their premium rolls are made from 100% bamboo, and they also have a recycled option, which is what we went for, with a one-off order, rather than a subscription (they also sell boxes of tissues if you're after some, and paper kitchen towels made from bamboo and sugar cane.)

We went for 48 double-length rolls (£36) over 24 rolls (£24), so we got more bog (roll) for our buck. That works out at around 19p per 100 sheets. I have no idea how long this toilet roll stash is going to last, but if you choose the 'subscribe and save' option, they'll try and stagger your deliveries depending on how many people live in your home, for example they'll deliver every 12 weeks if you're a house of 3-4.

Their recycled toilet roll is made from old office paper and books, and comes wrapped in beautifully patterned compostable packaging! Who Gives a Crap like to share inventive ways to reuse their packaging too on their Instagram, from making Christmas crackers, to gift wrapping, to an alternative to wrapping your lunch in tin foil. It really is too pretty to only use once.

Also, 50% of Who Gives a Crap's profits are used to build toilets and improve sanitation in developing countries, which really is just the icing on the cake. They provide impact updates on their website to give details of their latest donations, and showing directly what their profits are going towards, which is a level of transparency I wish more companies would provide. To date they've donated over £1 million - amazing!

Regarding transparency, they're also honest about their efforts to become plastic-free. Some of their products still contain some plastic elements, and they talk about this and their progress towards making these elements more environmentally-friendly in their 'help' section.

Now finally, Megan, you may be asking, where do you store 48 rolls of toilet roll?

My answer is, you need to get creative, as you can see above. There was only so much I could store on top of the bathroom cabinet, so the airing cupboard was the next port of call. If you're going to switch to Who Gives a Crap, make sure you have space for your order, or things might get cosy...