How long is a roll of toilet paper?
You probably don’t spend too much time thinking about the length of toilet roll. That is, until the roll runs out - then it’s a pressing concern!
But surprisingly for such a routinely used item there’s no standard length, and the variety in shapes and lengths across brands can make it difficult to judge the value, quality, and even the environmental impact of toilet paper.
How long is a piece of string? Pfft, who cares? Today we’re digging into the really critical issue: How long is a roll of toilet paper?
How many sheets of toilet paper are in a roll?
The length of a toilet roll can vary a lot, depending on the manufacturer, the country of origin, and the type of bathroom where it’s going to be used.
Standard toilet rolls you’ll find in homes in the UK are constrained by two factors: they can’t be too thin, because then customers wouldn’t feel like they were good value, and they can’t be too fat, because then they wouldn’t fit on toilet roll holders.
These considerations mean that there’s an element of de facto standardisation at play, but between “too stingy to sell” and “too big to fit a holder” there’s a big range. A quick search of big brands and supermarket offerings in the UK finds a range from 160 sheets to 440, with most brands clustered somewhere around 200 sheets.
In this respect, we’re at the upper end. There are 320 2-ply sheets on one roll of our Naked Sprout environmentally friendly toilet paper, and each sheet is 115 x 97mm.
This means that the total length of a toilet roll is 38m, about 124 feet. That’s the length of three and a bit double-decker buses, or three quarters of the length of an Olympic swimming pool!
Why isn’t there a standard length for toilet rolls?
Right so that’s our roll size and how it compares with others out there, but why is there such a difference in the first place?
The answer lies in the nature of the product and the market. Toilet paper needs to meet very different sets of preferences and very different contexts. Some people prize softness above all else and will happily choose a thicker roll with cushioned plys and less sheets. Others among us are driven by a desire for bargains, and will be more likely to opt for thinner, more economical rolls with more sheets.
Add into this the many, many toilet rolls that are used in workplaces and public spaces like cafes, libraries, and music venues. In these settings, toilet paper needs to be thin enough to break down very quickly, and they come in the form of extra long rolls that fit larger holders and don’t need changing all the time. The “jumbo” rolls will tend to be around 300 - 400 metres long, around 10 times as long as our rolls!
Who would be responsible for standardisation?
If there were to be a push for standardising toilet rolls, who would take on this responsibility?
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a global body that might be a good shout. Their list of well known standards includes camera speeds, food safety standards, and medical devices. The ISO also set the standards that are commonly used to calculate greenhouse gases as part of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). Our own LCA for example, conforms to the standards set by the ISO 14067.
This means that as long as we know the CO2e per gram of our own products (which we do!) we can compare with those of other companies who have produced LCAs following the same standards. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of companies out there who publish their LCAs, but by going public with ours, and printing our numbers on our boxes, we’re hoping to see this become… the standard!
So the ISO (along with other groups like the EU and the British Standards Institution) are setting standards on things that require international collaboration and comparison. But toilet rolls aren’t quite up there with carbon assessments in terms of priorities. The question of how long a toilet roll is becomes an emergency when there’s half a roll left and the shops are shut, but it’s hardly a pressing international concern.
In the case of toilet paper, the industry would probably need to standardise itself.
There’s some precedent for this. Knitters and crocheters, for example, will be familiar with a standard list of thicknesses or “weights” for yarn and wool. This means that a customer who purchases wool in Finland will (hopefully!) be able to knit a jumper using a pattern by a British designer, using knitting needles purchased in Korea, without worrying that the final jumper will be far too big or far too small.
This standardisation or convergence of materials and tools, also seen in other crafts like woodworking, sewing, and model-making, wasn’t imposed by any governments or international bodes, it developed over time as companies sought to ensure that their products could fit in the existing community of craftspeople and the materials they had.
Why doesn’t the toilet roll industry develop its own standard length?
If wool makers, timber merchants, and lightbulb manufacturers are able to offer standardisation why can’t toilet roll companies get it together?
It’s possible that tissue manufacturers and industry groups could collaborate to create voluntary guidelines or standards, but given the competitive nature of the market, it is unlikely that a single, rigid standard would be adopted even in a single country, let alone globally.
Unlike craft materials or sporting equipment, there’s no pressing need for standardisation, and in fact many manufacturers benefit from the diverse prices. It’s quite common, for example, for people to ask us how much our toilet roll costs per roll, and then point out that the per roll cost of another brand is cheaper. But when we look at the price per 100 sheets we find that Naked Sprout is great value compared to other brands (see how we measure up here!)
As pressure on energy supplies and raw materials has grown, we’re also seeing some businesses quietly trim the size of their toilet rolls, a cost-cutting exercise called “shrinkflation.” We've written a bit about toilet roll prices and why we've been able to keep ours stable here.
All of this means that there’s likely to be a standard length for toilet rolls any time soon. In a way, this is a shame, because we’d love to be able to draw roll-for-roll comparisons on our pricing, the chemicals we’re saving, and especially our climate footprint.
But it does mean that we’re free to break from the pack on our environmentally friendly toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, and tissue products. An example of this is our toilet rolls, we’ve recently reduced the core size to make them 8mm slimmer. This brings down the size of our rolls overall, meaning we can fit more boxes on a pallet and bring down our road miles.
We’re always trying to revise our products to see where we can increase their sustainability without bringing down the quality. Standardisation, for us, might mean moving at a slower pace and having a bit less scope for creativity in how we tackle issues like transport efficiency, reducing packaging, and reducing the fossil fuels in our supply chain.
So there’s plusses and minuses - overall we’re happy to be different from the standard!
Conclusion
So… how long is a roll of toilet paper?
There’s no set answer. The answer will change depending on the country you’re in, the shop you’re buying from, even the specific packet you pick up.
If you’re buying with the environment in mind, consider longer rolls that will need replacing less often, and always seek out recycled toilet rolls or those made from more renewable materials, without bleach or dyes or extra wrapping - so all those lovely sheets aren’t coming at extra cost in unnecessary materials and road miles.
Want to see how our extra long, environmentally-friendly toilet roll measures up against the standard?
