Toilet Paper: From History to Sustainable Production

Background

Toilet paper has become an indispensable part of modern hygiene. In the United States alone, the average household uses more than 100 single‑roll packages annually—approximately 21,000 sheets. While primarily intended for bathroom use, many people also employ it for nose care, wiping spills, removing makeup, and small cleaning tasks. On average, a single roll lasts about five days.

Toilet paper, along with paper towels, napkins, and facial tissues, falls under the category of sanitary paper. These products are crafted from a blend of bleached kraft pulp with minimal refining, resulting in a soft, bulky, and highly absorbent material. A distinctive creping process—drying the paper on a cylinder and scraping it with a metal blade—adds a slight crinkle that enhances softness but also makes the fibers more water‑disintegrable.

Products are available in one‑ply or two‑ply configurations. Two‑ply tissue offers increased thickness and absorbency. Variations in color, scent, and embossing are common, though fragrances can trigger allergies in some users. The primary distinction lies in the source material: virgin pulp derived directly from freshly chipped wood versus recycled pulp. Most toilet paper, regardless of origin, is wrapped around recycled cardboard cylinders.

History

Before paper’s widespread adoption, societies used diverse materials for personal hygiene. Romans employed L‑shaped wooden or metal sticks, while public facilities often featured sponges on sticks stored in saltwater. In arid regions, sand, powdered brick, or earth were common substitutes. Until the late 19th century, many Muslims relied on three stones, sometimes a mussel shell, for cleansing. Early 20th‑century households sometimes used corn cobs.

The transition to paper began in the 15th century as paper production increased. People repurposed old letters, books, newspapers, and even paper bags, cutting them into strips and threading them onto a string in latrines. The first true toilet paper appeared around 1880, created by the British Perforated Paper Company. It was a coarse square, sold in boxes, and not yet perforated. In the United States, the Scott Paper Company launched the Waldorf brand in rolls by 1890. Early rolls were unperforated, and dispensers featured serrated teeth to cut the paper. The product remained socially discreet for decades, with consumers often requesting “two” without naming the item. Brown paper wrappers helped maintain privacy.

Since its debut, toilet paper has evolved primarily through perforation, scenting, embossing, and color variations. Manufacturers now produce rolls with more sheets, reducing the frequency of replacement.

Raw Materials

Toilet paper typically blends softwood and hardwood fibers—roughly 70% hardwood (e.g., gum, maple, oak) for softness and 30% softwood (e.g., southern pine, Douglas fir) for strength. The pulp is combined with water, pulping chemicals, and bleaching agents. Recycled‑paper producers use oxygen, ozone, sodium hydroxide, or peroxide to whiten the pulp, while virgin‑paper mills often employ chlorine‑based bleaches such as chlorine dioxide. The latter has raised environmental concerns due to dioxin by‑products.

The Manufacturing Process

1. Logs arrive at the mill, where they are debarked to preserve as much wood as possible.
2. Debarked logs are chipped into uniform pieces (~1 in × ¼ in) to ease pulping.
3. The chips (≈ 50 tons) are mixed with 10,000 gallons of cooking chemicals and cooked in a 60‑ft digester for up to three hours, reducing moisture and producing a slurry of cellulose fibers and lignin.
4. After cooking, the mixture is washed to remove lignin and cooking residues, yielding about 15 tons of usable pulp.
5. Bleaching removes residual lignin, brightening the fibers.
6. The pulp is diluted to create paper stock (≈ 99.5 % water, 0.5 % fiber) and pressed through mesh screens, forming a wide sheet of matting.
7. The mat is transferred to a Yankee dryer—an enormous heated cylinder—that presses and dries the paper to ~5 % moisture.
8. Creping follows: a metal blade scrapes the paper off the dryer, giving it softness and a slight wrinkled texture. This step also reduces strength, ensuring the paper disintegrates when wet.
9. The creped paper is wound onto large reels (up to five tons) and then cut into rolls.
10. Finally, converting machines unwind, slit, and rewind the paper onto thin cardboard tubes to form finished toilet paper rolls.

Recycled Toilet Paper

Recycled tissue is made from both colored and white stock, with staples and pins removed. The material is pulped in a large vat with hot water and detergents, then screened and rinsed to eliminate coatings and inks. The resulting pulp is whitened with oxygen‑based agents such as peroxide, sanitized, and then processed through steps 7‑10 of the virgin‑paper workflow, yielding a more economical yet slightly less white product.

Quality Control

Manufacturers maintain proprietary forest stands to guarantee consistent fiber quality. The pulping chemicals and processing temperatures are rigorously monitored, with instruments and protocols ensuring optimal conditions. Finished paper undergoes testing for stretch, opacity, moisture content, smoothness, and color to meet stringent standards.

Byproducts and Waste

The primary by‑product of papermaking is bark, which is burned to supply energy for the mill. Black liquor— the liquid residue after pulping—is evaporated into a thick combustible liquid that also powers the plant. This process yields tall oil, a valuable component used in household products. Approximately 95 % of pulping chemicals are recovered and recycled.

Despite these efficiencies, virgin‑paper production faces criticism for tree removal and chlorine bleaching. While forests are managed to be renewable, concerns persist about deforestation and dioxin emissions. Many advocates call for a shift toward fully recycled products. In response, several manufacturers have adopted chlorine‑free bleaching methods—using oxygen, peroxide, or sodium hydroxide—to reduce dioxin formation. Enhanced pulping and washing stages also lower bleach requirements, improving environmental performance.