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At Sweet Cheeks, sustainability and value aren’t just buzzwords. They’re at the beating heart of what we do.
Rolling to the Rescue: How Sugarcane Toilet Rolls Can Help Save Rainforests
There’s no beating around the bush: our planet is under threat from all sides, from deforestation to pollution. If we want to keep it safe for future generations to enjoy, we need to act fast.
You might not think toilet paper is a big deal when it comes to the environment, but you’d be surprised. Traditional toilet paper production wreaks havoc on Mother Earth, causing massive deforestation and water consumption. That’s why it’s so important to find eco-friendly alternatives.
Enter sugarcane-based toilet paper, one of the most sustainable alternatives out there. Switching to it is a small but important step that can reduce your business’s environmental impact and help safeguard rainforests around the world.
Read on for a deeper dive into how traditional toilet paper is produced, why it’s so bad for the environment, and how swapping it for sugarcane can help protect our planet – one wipe at a time.
Why is traditional loo roll so bad for the environment?
Toilet roll is a household essential, so it’s no surprise the demand for it is high. Unfortunately, that means production is high too – and that spells trouble for the natural world.
Here are just a few ways traditional toilet rolls are an eco nightmare:
- Around 27,000 trees are chopped down every day to produce toilet paper. That works out to nearly 10 million trees a year!
- It takes almost 60 gallons of water just to grow and process the wood needed for one roll of toilet paper. Based on yearly consumption, that’s over 3,000 gallons of water every year for one person and nearly 13,000 gallons for every family.
- Most traditional toilet rolls come wrapped in non-recyclable plastic or plastic-coated packaging. These wrappers add to the global plastic waste problem and pose a risk to wildlife if not properly disposed of.
Yikes!
Luckily, things are starting to change. People are becoming more conscious of the challenges the environment is facing, which has encouraged businesses to introduce more eco-friendly alternatives to traditional toilet paper. You’re probably familiar with bamboo and recycled paper, but there’s another alternative that often flies under the radar: sugarcane!
So, why is sugarcane toilet paper any better?
Sugarcane isn’t just for getting that sweet, sweet sugar – it’s also a sustainability superhero, swooping in to save forests from getting the chop. Here’s how!
- Sugarcane is sourced from (you guessed it) sugarcane, not wood pulp. That means no deforestation, no ecosystems disrupted, and no wildlife left without a home.
- Sugarcane itself is also super sustainable. It grows way faster than trees – less than a year, compared to 30 – and requires a lot less water to grow.
- Sugarcane is grown primarily for the sugar-rich juices inside, rather than for the fibres (or ‘bagasse’) it’s made of. Any product made from bagasse is made from something that would have otherwise been burnt or sent to landfill. This makes sugarcane products even more sustainable than bamboo!
- There are far fewer intermediate steps needed to process sugarcane, making it more streamlined and less fuel-intensive than its wood-based counterpart.
For a closer look into what makes sugarcane such an eco-friendly choice, have a read through our full guide.
