Is bamboo toilet paper better for the environment?
Plastic pollution, climate-changing emissions, and harsh chemicals are polluting our planet, and the products we use every day are adding to the mess. Consumer surveys show that UK shoppers want to buy more environmentally friendly alternatives, but we’re often left frustrated by vague promises, unfamiliar logos, and greenwashing.
Bamboo toilet paper is often sold as a way to minimise the waste and environmental damage associated with standard tissue products. But is bamboo better for the environment than other types of toilet paper?
The short answer is: it can be.
The long answer? It depends on how it’s made, what ingredients are added, and how far it’s travelled to get to you.
Today, we’re racking up the pluses and minuses of our favourite hollow stalks - what factors can make bamboo toilet paper good for the environment, and how do you know if a roll of bamboo toilet paper is as green as its packaging?
Why is bamboo good for the environment?
There are some solid reasons why bamboo can be a great choice when it comes to sustainability, and number one is speed.
How fast does bamboo grow? Fast. Up to a meter a day for some species. And because it’s a grass, it doesn’t need to be replanted after harvesting. The farmers in our bamboo forests always leave stalks at least one foot above ground when they’re harvesting, the plant regrows from that stem and this keeps the root network intact, preventing landslides.
What’s more, bamboo can thrive without fertilisers, pesticides, or intensive farming. The bamboo we use for Naked Sprout is grown in FSC-certified forests filled with rivers, wildlife, and other plants, a far cry from the monoculture tree plantations that often supply the paper industry.
But, while bamboo has great potential as a sustainable material, the devil is in the details. It’s not just what you make toilet paper out of, it’s how you make it.
Let’s unwind the roll a little more, with three key questions about how bamboo toilet paper is made.
What ingredients are in bamboo toilet paper?
When you’re weighing up the impact of toilet paper made from bamboo, you need to consider the rest of the recipe.
Many toilet paper brands, including some labelled as more sustainable or environmentally friendly, still use bleach as a cosmetic alteration to whiten their rolls. While bright white rolls have been the norm for years, the bleaching process can have a significant environmental impact. Chlorine-based bleaching produces harmful byproducts, including dioxins, which can pollute waterways. Some companies have switched to "elemental chlorine-free" (ECF) bleaching, but even this uses chemicals that must be manufactured, packaged, and transported, all for the sake of a cosmetic change.
And there’s more than just the tissue itself to think about. Some brands colour their toilet paper, add fragrances, or individually wrap rolls in extra layers of wrapping coated in bright chemical dyes. All these extras come with their own environmental cost.
At Naked Sprout, we go against the grain. Our soft bamboo toilet paper is completely unbleached and free from unnecessary chemicals, which means fewer emissions during production and less pollution down the line. And our rolls come to you in their birthday suits with no excess unnecessary dyes and packaging.
How is the tissue dried?
This is the big one. Drying the pulp to make toilet paper is the most energy-intensive part of making tissue or any paper product. And if you’re using fossil fuels in your furnaces, the CO2e produced at this stage will be a huge chunk of the overall climate footprint.
Most toilet paper, whether made from bamboo, traditional wood pulp, or recycled material, is dried using natural gas. This is true even for toilet paper that’s manufactured in the UK - these are often produced using large generic "parent rolls" of tissue, which are dried overseas using fossil fuels before being shipped here to be cut into smaller rolls and put in branded boxes.
At Naked Sprout, we’ve taken a different approach - we make our own parent rolls, and our own baby rolls as well! Our bamboo pulp is dried at our wonderful B Corp factory in Spain using renewable biofuel and biomethane (twigs and gas from sheep!), making our manufacturing process fossil-fuel-free. This switch dramatically reduces emissions compared to traditional methods, and it’s one of the reasons we’re able to offer a genuinely low-CO2e alternative to toilet paper made the traditional way.
When comparing bamboo toilet paper brands, it’s worth asking: how was it dried? If the answer is "natural gas," that’s a clear indication there’s still room for improvement in the production process.
How far has the toilet paper been shipped?
Shipping is another factor to consider when it comes to the environmental impact of bamboo toilet paper. A common critique is that the bamboo used for commercial manufacturing typically comes from China, which can mean a longer journey than farmed forestry or recycled materials. However, there’s more to the story.
At Naked Sprout, we import bamboo pulp to our factory from China by sea freight - using well-used routes that have a known carbon footprint. Shipping square bales of bamboo pulp instead of finished rolls is considerably more space-efficient, meaning that we need far fewer trips than we would if our soft, fluffy toilet paper was manufactured in China.
Once the pulp arrives in Spain, we’ve taken steps to make our logistics network as eco-friendly as possible. For example, we’ve incorporated electrified rail into our supply chain, so our rolls travel from our factory in Spain to the English channel by train.
Naked Sprout: bamboo toilet paper done right
So, is bamboo toilet paper better for the environment?
The best way to tell is to look at the transparency on offer by the company in question. At Naked Sprout we have an externally audited green credentials page where we’ve collected our sustainability evidence so you can see exactly how we’re making our products, and how the rest of our sector compares.
On its own, bamboo grows quickly and doesn’t need to be farmed intensively. But to understand the true environmental footprint of any product you need to consider the total footprint of its raw materials, energy, and transport.
We’re delighted to offer bamboo toilet paper, boxes of tissues, and paper kitchen towels that are sustainable in far more ways than one (and recycled toilet paper too!)
Want to put our bamboo to the test?
