Toilet paper, toilet paper!   I cannot believe all the fuss about toilet paper. Growing up in our house, Mom stocked the house with the cheapest brand available. The one-ply, almost-see-through, fall-apart-in-one-wipe kind. I knew no better. I thought toilet paper was toilet paper. Ha! Was I wrong!

bain of my existence

The first commercially available toilet paper was invented by Joseph Gayetty in 1857 in the United States. But this toilet paper was made available to people in 1920.

The popularity of toilet paper is ranked third among the non-food products. Some leading brands of toilet paper include Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Georgia Pacific and Fort James. About 6 million tons of toilet paper is produced in the U.S. including face tissues as well as paper napkins.

Before people had “toilet paper,” people used leaves, corncobs, and yes it is true, pages from the Sears catalog, among other things. Principally, anything that could be used to clean the bottom parts and also act as a barrier between a hand and poop.

My first notification that there was something up with toilet paper is when a male friend complained about his roommate (a female) was using too much toilet paper. And he said this in the most angry-tinged way. What the!? Someone notices how much toilet paper someone else uses? I was stunned. (By the way, women will always use more toilet paper than men.)

On another occasion, my neighbors complained one day about one particular visiting couple that were using astonishing amounts of toilet paper. “What are they doing with it all?” they said. Again, this shocks me that someone is being judged on how much toilet paper they are using.

I remember a driving trip I took with a friend to her son’s boarding school (tuition 50k per year), and the school was forcing her son to use inferior toilet paper, so we brought him a case of his favorite. No, I am not kidding.

Another friend said she buys the kind of toilet paper that uses no cardboard tubes so her husband, who criticizes her overuse of toilet paper, won’t be able to count the tubes in the trash. Whoa!!!!

Thankfully, this has not been an issue at my house. My hubby does not comment on my use of toilet paper nor does he have a brand that must be used. We usual go with a two ply that happens to be on sale when we run out. And we tend to run out a lot. Then we resort to the facial tissue that is sitting on the back of the toilet before one of us finally breaks down and buys a case. No, I am not the kind of person who goes to Costco and stocks up on truckloads.

One time we had a windfall when another neighbor bought the wrong kind of toilet paper and we ended up with the entire case. We thought it was fine.

Follow the money

Toilet paper is definitely a money making product for the companies that sell it. Just look at the amount of TP in the aisle. My goodness, there is a huge selection so it must be inexpensive to make and very profitable.

Then you have to pick from two ply, aloe added, soft, extra soft, jumbo, strong, quilted, scented, printed…and it goes on and on. OMG!

Here are a couple of examples below.

Families with low incomes pay more for everyday household items such as toilet paper than families with higher incomes. It’s not that low-income families are unaware of how to take advantage of discounts and deals, but their ability to buy in bulk is financially limited. As a result, the shoppers who need to save money the most are forking over more of their paycheck.

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The recent study by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business examined data on toilet paper purchases by 100,000 U.S. households during a period of seven years, reported CNN Money. Toilet paper was chosen for the study because it is used consistently by almost everyone and is an item that often gets discounted by stores.

What they found was that families who earned less were unlikely to afford the higher upfront cost of purchasing things in bulk at discount stores. Buying in bulk involves a higher upfront price, but the savings will eventually make up for it in the long-term. While a pack of 36 rolls of two-ply toilet paper may cost around $15, buying each individually will cost $1.

The shopping method of buying in bulk helps families save in the long run, so low-income households’ inability to stock up will lead them to visit stores more often. It also hurts low-income families’ budgets since they’re more likely to miss out on sales and are forced to buy more toilet paper whenever it runs out.

Materials needed to make toilet paper are:

• Trees
• Water
• Chemicals for extracting fiber
• Bleaches like chlorine dioxide

For paper recycling, companies use oxygen, ozone, sodium hydroxide, or peroxide to whiten the recycled paper. Toilet paper is often perforated, scented, embossed and colored. There are several differences in manufacturing process depending on what materials are used to make toilet paper.

If toilet paper is made of recycled paper, process starts by many different kinds of paper being mixed together. Next step is choosing a solution to remove ink. Recycled paper needs to be washed and is often deinked prior to being pulped. Toilet paper is then pulverized and reformed into very thin and soft paper. At the end of process toilet paper is bleached and scented.

Making toilet paper from the trees

Toilet paper is generally made from “virgin” paper, using a combination of softwood and hardwood trees (a combination of approximately 70% hardwood and 30% softwood). Other materials for final product of toilet paper include water, chemicals and bleaches.

Steps:

1. Preparing trees (a combination of softwood and hardwood trees). Trees are stripped of their bark.

3. The logs pass through machines that chip them into small pieces.

4. The wood chips are separated into batches.

5. A massive pressure cooker (a digester) cooks the wood chips with other chemicals for approximately 3 hours. The moisture in the wood is evaporated and the mass is reduces to cellulose fibers, lignin and other substances. Result is usable fiber, called pulp. The pulp is what paper is made from.

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6. The pulp is then washed clean of the lignin and the cooking chemicals

7. The washed pulp is bleached until all the color is removed. The adhesive that binds fibers together (lignin) must be removed from the pulp or the paper will become yellow over time.

8. The pulp is mixed with a lot of water to produce paper stock (99.5% water and 0.5% fiber). The paper stock is sprayed onto screens of mesh that drain the water.

9. The paper is then pressed and dried to final moisture (content about 5%).

10. The paper is scraped off with metal blades and wound on jumbo reels. Then the paper is moved to machines that cut it into long strips and perforate it into squares. Finally, the paper logs are cut into rolls and wrapped packages.

“Warren Buffett knew that he wanted to be in business with the kind of guy who would leave a black-tie party to count sheets of toilet paper.”  A quote about Ben Rossner.

Things have been added to the toilet paper aisle. There is a new product in town. Wet wipes! Oh yes. When you want to make sure you are really clean. And they are flushable, but there seems to be an issue with these showing up plugging sewers, so don’t flush. Throw them in the waste basket. You know, that waste basket you have sitting by the toilet. Yes, throw it there. Let me give you a tip. Baby wipes are cheaper and thicker than Wet Wipes. Use them instead.

Next is the Poo-Pourri. Something you spray in the toilet before you go number 2 so you don’t stink up the place. I have one but have not tested it out. It always seems to be somewhere else when the occasion calls for it.

Having a “talk?”

I was visiting some friends the other day when another person who was also visiting admitted that they had a long-term guest staying with them and that guest was using too much toilet paper. She was going to have a “talk” with her about the toilet paper use. And she added, that she and her husband liked the kind with aloe. Really!? They have 5 airplanes and they are counting toilet paper sheets. Does anyone else think this is odd? Please let me know what you think of people complaining about other people using too much TP, or is it an issue for you.

By the way, I have learned and I bring my own toilet paper when I stay at someone’s house…you know when I stay a week or more. I don’t want to be judged for my toilet paper usage. I’m judged on enough things already. Amen!

Thanks for reading,

Terry Ryan, Health Blogger

Terry Ryan