toilet paper for thought

I've wanted to do this for a while, so here I go.

There is the toilet paper, sitting on a roll next to you in the bathroom, patiently waiting to do what it does best and be flushed away. Simple, serene.

It's a staple of our lives, toilet paper. Where would we be without it, after all?

For something as ubiquitous as toilet paper very little thought is applied, outside of finding the best deal, desired quality, or the highest recycled or certified wood content. Yet even this simple product can be a source of insight. All we need to do is conduct a simple life cycle analysis (LCA). This is an inventory of all of the inputs required to produce a product, from the moment they are involved until the product achieves its end state.

For toilet paper, this starts with wood. Wood must be cultivated and harvested. Let's pretend for a moment that it's naturally occurring wood, like the old days (mostly). Nature has done most of the hard work. But it still takes money (which we will assume for all steps but only as a way to summarize the other inputs) and several laborers, large machinery and fuel for them, ropes and other tools, and time to harvest the wood. Afterward, the wood is processed in a mill, which also requires those inputs but also electricity--probably coal, oil or natural gas. It also has to be transported from the harvest site, requiring yet more machinery, fuel, labor and time. The cost of these inputs are borne by the wood harvesting and processing company.

Next, the wood is transported to the toilet paper plant--machinery, fuel, labor, time. The cost of these inputs are borne by the toilet paper company, paid to the harvesting and processing company.

The wood is pulped and formed into paper, requiring labor, machinery, energy and time. The cost of these inputs are borne by the toilet paper company.

The paper is placed on cardboard rolls which have their own similar creation process somewhere else, but let's draw the line at the toilet paper there. Machinery, energy and time are used to create the toilet paper rolls. Labor and time is much less intensive due to mass-production machinery, but the machinery and energy inputs have become much more intense. To a business this saves money since labor is very expensive (time = money largely because labor is involved, I suspect) but energy and its side effects have increased. There is no free lunch, not even a mechanized one. In any case, the cost of these inputs are borne by the toilet paper company.

The paper is wrapped in plastic. Again, the plastic has been created by a manufacturing process, though it is a bit different than the cardboard rolls. The wrapping of toilet paper is also likely mechanized, using machinery, energy and a little labor and time. The cost of these inputs are borne by the toilet paper company.

The paper is boxed into shipment containers, probably cardboard. More machinery, energy and time. The cost of these inputs are borne by the toilet paper company.

The paper is placed on palettes and moved onto shipping trucks. Labor, Machinery, energy and time. The cost of these inputs are borne by the toilet paper company.

The paper is distributed to resellers around the world. Labor, machinery and energy are used to accept and organize the orders. The cost of these inputs are borne by the toilet paper company. Then trucking and shipping companies deliver the toilet paper around the world. Labor, machinery, fuel and time. The cost of these inputs are borne by the shipping companies and reimbursed by the toilet paper company.

The reseller then sells and ships the toilet paper to supermarkets and other vendors. Labor, machinery and energy are used to accept and organize the orders. The cost of these inputs are borne by the resellers and the toilet paper company. Then trucking and shipping companies deliver the toilet paper to the vendors. Labor, machinery, fuel and time. The cost of these inputs are borne by the shipping companies and reimbursed by the resellers.

Here's where you come in.

You buy the toilet paper. It takes money of course, but it also takes your time, fuel to get there (be it gas, energy or food), and time. You bear the cost of these inputs, paid to the store, the gas station, the bus company, or the bike shop--just not necessarily at that time.

You use the toilet paper. A few moments of time and it is done. One flush and away it goes. That was easy. Your part is now complete.

The toilet paper gets flushed into the sewer system. Much labor, time, energy and machinery was put into place to create the sewer system. It took labor, machinery, time and energy to put your sewer tank in place as well. And a little tiny bit of all of this work can be attributed to this act, along with the energy and water required to flush it.

The toilet paper decomposes in the sewer system. It becomes food for bacteria.


It's likely that you have not thought about the act of using toilet paper as this massive chain of events. That's because you just buy it, use it, and flush it. This is my point. Because you do not clearly participate in or front the costs of any of these other steps, you most likely do not consider them to be part of the toilet paper procedure. And yet without each one, the toilet paper would not exist.

More likely, the case is that you needed to clean up after yourself. Toilet paper is the solution that you have available. But it is by no means the only one. A bidet sprays a little bit of water and is used to the same purpose. Some metals and porcelain, machinery, labor, energy and time were used to create it, much like a toilet. Then someone ordered it and placed it in the bathroom. The only input of the action required is a little bit of power and water, whereas the toilet paper required a huge amount of labor, machinery, energy, fuel and time to manufacture, organize, store and deliver. It did not just appear out of thin air, therefore all of the inputs must be considered even if the moment the product is actually used is very brief. The toilet paper is equivalent to the water coming out of the bidet, not the bidet itself.

What we need in the first place is the service that toilet paper provides, not the toilet paper. There are a lot of products acting as services in this way.

Are they necessary?

Something to think about.