I don’t pay a lot of attention to toilet paper. I’ve never taken a side in the great over-or-under debate about roll loading, I don’t care about brands, and maybe because I’ve used dried corn leaves and newspapers on travels through Latin America, I’m not picky when it comes to plushness.
But about five years ago during the pandemic run on toilet paper (remember those weird days?), I started to read about the environmental impact of toilet paper. And it wasn’t good news.
Not to bum you out, but companies cut down forests and use virgin wood to make most toilet paper. Not only does the destruction and degradation impact wildlife and Indigenous people in places like Canada’s Boreal forests, but it also seriously decreases an ecosystem’s ability to absorb the greenhouse gases that are pumped into the atmosphere.
At about that time, I happened to get an Instagram ad for Who Gives A Crap, a company that delivers 100% recycled toilet paper right to your door. The creepiness of the soothsaying algorithm aside, it was perfect timing. I’ve had a subscription to Who Gives A Crap ever since. And I’m never going back.
This delivery- and subscription-based toilet paper is available in 100% recycled paper and 100% bamboo versions. Both come in bright, fun packaging suitable for display.
This delivery- and subscription-based toilet paper is available in 100% recycled paper and 100% bamboo versions. Both come in bright, fun packaging suitable for display.
Part of what made this brand of toilet paper so initially eye-catching—and has certainly become its signature—is the colorful, actually cute packaging for each roll (that’s also 100% plastic-free). A box of 24 or 48 rolls of recycled toilet paper contains a rainbow of green polka dots, purple zigzags, and other poppy designs. It looks very chic waiting its turn on the back of the toilet. The bamboo version comes in equally graphic black-and-white designs.
You can buy individual rolls of Who Gives A Crap toilet paper at some brick-and-mortar stores, but part of my affection for the company and product is due to the subscription service, which ensures that my household never runs out of TP. It offers several subscription choices, and you can select the frequency, amount, and type of product (Who Gives A Crap also makes tissues, paper towels, and recycled bags for trash, food scraps, and dog poop). My family of four gets 48 rolls every 12 weeks (we use less TP than average because of a bidet).
So yes, the packaging is cute, and getting it delivered is handy—but I wouldn’t keep my subscription if not for the company’s mission.
Who Gives A Crap’s toilet paper is made from 100% post-consumer waste paper. (To be clear, that is not recycled toilet paper but recycled office paper.) According to the company, the 100% bamboo toilet paper, which is slightly thicker, softer, and more expensive than the paper stuff, uses up to 90% less land to produce than its paper cousin and zero trees. Both are FSC-certified, which means in part that no forests were destroyed to grow bamboo or crop wood for paper.
Both types of Who Gives A Crap TP qualify as fluorine-free under current guidelines (which allow for up to 10 parts per million), but according to the company, it’s working on eliminating those forever chemicals from its products entirely.
Of course, nothing you buy is completely without impact, and Who Gives A Crap is not the only company making paper products with a lighter environmental footprint. Wirecutter’s top toilet paper pick is Seventh Generation 100% Recycled Extra Soft & Strong Bath Tissue, and you can find great bamboo options (with plastic-free delivery subscriptions) from Betterway, PlantPaper, and Save Trees (formerly Cloud Paper), all of which are also FSC-certified.
The kicker for me, though, is the additional steps that Who Gives A Crap takes to make a meaningful public-health impact. It donates 50% of its profits (so far that equals around $12.5 million) to partner organizations that provide clean toilets and water to people who don’t have access to them. According to the World Health Organization, preventing diseases and infections due to poor sanitation could save an estimated 1.4 million lives per year.
But let’s get down to brass tacks, so to speak. How does it feel? To be perfectly honest, it isn’t as soft as paper from the top luxury brands. Recently, in a rental house, I used some ultra-plush, virgin-wood toilet paper, and it was significantly thicker and softer. Who Gives A Crap’s paper definitely feels more supermarket-brand than top-of-the-line.
So if you’re accustomed to the ultra-plush softness of toilet paper like Charmin Ultra Soft or Cottonelle, the Who Gives A Crap TP might feel a little rough and flimsy. If you are instead used to the stuff you find in most public bathrooms, Who Gives A Crap paper will feel as soft as a baby’s bottom. That said, I’ve never had a single complaint about Who Gives A Crap.
If plushness is your priority, I recommend the slightly more expensive bamboo version. For years, my family used the company’s recycled-paper offering, but after a recent visit to my mom’s bathroom, we switched to the bamboo version because it’s a little softer and thicker. But both the paper and bamboo versions are dimpled, strong, three-ply papers that come in double rolls—and neither type tears easily or leaves fluff behind.
We use a bidet in our home, and either type of Who Gives A Crap is strong enough for wiping or patting dry the undercarriage without any disintegration or leftover bits.
I don’t have any misgivings about my toilet paper choices, but Who Gives A Crap is slightly more expensive than the cheapest TP you can buy. But not by much. If you opt for 100% recycled paper, it’s about $1.29 per roll when you buy 48 rolls once for $62, but the price goes down if you subscribe and up slightly to $1.58 if you order only 24 rolls. (All orders over $25 ship for free to anywhere in the contiguous United States.)
For comparison, Charmin Ultra Soft Cushiony Touch is about $1.42 per roll, and Scott Trusted Clean is about 97¢ on Amazon.
The non-subscription price for Who Gives A Crap’s bamboo toilet paper (my preference) is about $1.42 when you buy 48 rolls and $1.83 for 24 rolls. The bamboo version additionally comes in a pack of 12 rolls, but it’s unavailable as a subscription.
Could I find cheaper or softer toilet paper? Totally. But could I find toilet paper that’s more convenient, aesthetically pleasing, and guilt-free? Absolutely not. Who Gives A Crap finally made me pay attention to toilet paper—and then allowed me to forget about it completely.
This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp, Katie Okamoto, and Maxine Builder.
