Hello friends! As a life long environmentalist, I've always been interested in trying to lessen my impact and choose the greenest options available for my needs. This means I've been buying recycled or bamboo toilet roll since the 90s, and have tried a lot of different brands. My priority is that it is recycled, bamboo if recycled isn't an option (or I hate the only recycled option available ...more on that later), and then no plastic if that's possible. Some of the brands I really liked are discontinued (looking at you, brown/undyed Seventh Generation), and some are hard to find (again, more on that later), but hopefully between these options you can find one that you like, too.
So we're going to do this as a three tier rating list, from dislike to midgrade to The Good Stuff. ;)
There are of course other brands that I haven't tried - I just saw a bunch I've never heard of when I was looking up links on Amazon to show you what I was talking about - but my experience is mostly ones that you can find in stores (or used to be able to find in stores... ) with one exception (Who Gives A Crap).
It's unfortunate, I think, that the most common, easily found recycled tp is my most hated, because not only is that a pain for me trying to buy for myself, but also I feel like other people must have tried it and found it to be lacking for the same reason I do, and then came away with the conclusion that all recycled toilet paper must be bad. But it isn't!
I hate. Hate Seventh Generation white recycled toilet roll. Why? It fucking lints. As in, you get wee little bits of paper stuck to your nether bits like toilet paper confetti. Which is nasty. The point of toilet roll is to clean yourself, and it's literally leaving bits of itself behind.
I think I know why it is this way - people have this notion that recycled paper must be scratchy and hard (recycled facial tissues, which I buy too, are rather notoriously less soft than virgin fiber tissues. It isn't a big deal if you are blowing your nose occasionally, but if you have a cold or something where you are blowing your nose all the time, it will turn your nose raw). So they swung hard for "softness" rather than "strength," and in my experience the linting issue happens with "soft" virgin fiber toilet paper as well.
Since store brand items are usually just name brand items in different packaging, I'm pretty sure Ever Spring recycled tp from Target is Seventh Generation in disguise, because I hate that one too for the same reason.
It's a shame that Seventh Generation discontinued their brown, undyed toilet roll, because that one was my absolute favorite for the several years it was available. It was still soft enough, but strong too so it did its job and cleaned you, plus it was the most eco-friendly option since it saved a bunch of water and hydrogen peroxide (what they use to bleach the white) in the manufacturing process. They only ever sold that one at Vitamin Cottage/Natural Grocers and Amazon though, and they charged more for it (which doesn't make sense, less ingredients, less processing, it should have been cheaper, but yanno, they love to extort people who will pay for the eco option), so of course it didn't gain widespread popularity since it was only available at one regional health food store and searching online, but it was quality stuff. Their regular stuff is not great. Do not recommend.
I will give you the link to this item on Amazon and As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for supporting me! ...but I'm actually going to suggest that if you can find this one in a store, it's probably going to be cheaper. However, I actually haven't seen this one in a store for a couple of years (that's actually true for both of my mid-grade choices), so I don't know why that is or if it's only available online in bulk quantities for more money now? It always strikes me odd when the bulk purchase isn't cheaper, and maybe you can chalk it up to inflation on everything - after all as I said, I haven't found it in a store for a couple of years now - but I've been buying this one since the 90s (until I couldn't find it in stores anymore), so I don't know why it suddenly isn't available at King Soopers/Kroger stores anymore, when it always was before. Perhaps they signed an exclusivity deal with Seventh Generation? I don't know. But if you can find it, it's perfectly acceptable, soft-but-not-too-soft, does-a-good-job, recycled toilet paper (and usually a bit cheaper, unless inflation).
Also, Green Forest gets an A+ rating on NRDC's ranking of the sustainability of toilet tissue products, so that's a win!
Marcal/Marcal Small Steps. In the store it used to come under the "Marcal Small Steps" label, and though I saw a listing like that on Amazon too, this was the better deal.
WGAC is the one that is mail-order-only (and always has been), but know that those boxes last foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. For me as a single person (who is an innie so I have to wipe after peeing and I bleed and stuff; an outtie who doesn't do either of those would go through it even slower, I'm sure), the small box lasts six months and the big box lasts a year, so it's worth it.
It comes packaged with no plastic (hooray! the first one on this list), and the paper that the rolls are wrapped with are recyclable (they're the consistency of printer paper) in addition to the cores and box, of course.
WGAC also sells bamboo paper, but I haven't tried that one, so I can't speak to its quality.
I have a referral link for this one if you'd like to try it, that will get you $10 off your first box: https://www.talkable.com/x/hyPTzJ
Who Gives A Crap is also the only other A+ rating on NRDC's sustainability rankings, so that's another thing to consider when you're trying to be as eco-friendly as possible with your choices!
My other "good stuff" choice is the only bamboo paper on this list:
Honestly, this is quite possibly the nicest toilet roll I've ever used, lol. If you like the softness, this is soft, but it's also strong so it doesn't lint. I feel like this must be what bougie rich people use. 😂 I've got a friend that will make a face over "scratchy one-ply" but I was raised on scratchy one-ply (I don't generally use it anymore though, lol, but my mother still does) so I always was like, eh, toilet paper is toilet paper. I don't need a cloud to wipe my arse, I just want it to be clean. Now that I've tried this one, I see that it can indeed be nice. Reel is three-ply (I think the others on this list are all two-ply?), and it seems to make a difference!
I will warn you that this is also the priciest one on the list generally, but I sometimes find good coupons for it in Target Circle (20% or even once or twice, 40% off) or rebates in ibotta, so check those coupons and rebates! The boxes also last a long time (about a roll per week, for me), so that helps, too. But here is the link on Amazon if you'd like to buy it there.
This one also comes packaged without plastic (yay!), but know that the paper that the rolls are wrapped in is NOT recyclable! They are tissue paper consistency (as opposed to WGAC's printer paper consistency), so you can't put them in the recycling, it will ruin the load. What I do is I use the wrappers to wrap sanitary products before I throw them away, rather than wasting tp to do that. Or, I use a piece of it if I need to pick up something icky, such as if Yuan has a dingleberry, rather than wasting tissue or paper towel to pick up the cat poop.
Reel only gets a C on NRDC's scorecard, and WGAC's bamboo gets a D, so I think bamboo just isn't as good for the environment as recycled is, which is why I try for recycled first.
I was trying to stick to national brands for this list since stores are generally regional, but King Soopers/Kroger sells a recycled tp under their Simple Truth label that is pretty good, and I wonder if it is Green Forest or Marcal in disguise. It's also tons cheaper than any of these other options, though the rolls don't last as long because they're smaller, so it's easier to try and see if you like it. So this one would go in my mid-grade tier!
So there you go! I hope this list was useful if you were thinking of making the switch or just trying out some greener toilet roll options. Do you have a favorite that I didn't mention? Let me know in the comments!
images from their respective listing that I linked to on Amazon, except for WGAC, which came from its listing on its own website that I also linked to. I didn't link to the Seventh Generation listing because DON'T BUY IT IT'S NOT GOOD, lol, but yeah that was on Amazon too.
edited by request: the Seventh Generation listing is here
