Who Gives a Crap Toilet Roll – What do we think?

For the past few months I have been pondering the decision to try Who Gives a Crap. For those who do not know, Who Gives a Crap is an online shop selling recycled toilet paper and tissues. The first time I had come across them was during our stay at Bumblebarn Bell Tents a couple of years back. It never crossed my mind at that point to buy it back then. Fast forward a couple of weeks ago. Toilet paper shortage everywhere. As a family of 5 with 3 children, running out of toilet paper isn’t an option. So when I checked online to see if they had stock, I saw they did. So I placed an order.

Ordering

Although it seems every other person was also buying toilet paper, I managed to buy a box. It wasn’t until I received my order confirmation that it occurred to me, Where am I going to store 48 rolls? Living in such a small house, I was slightly concerned. A few days later the box arrived and I managed to find a space beside our shoe storage in the kitchen. I mean it doesn’t look pretty, but it was going to have to do! The boys find it hilarious to have a swear word written on the side of the box!

Toilet Paper

Each roll is individually wrapped in colourful tissue paper. It did seem rather pointless however reading their FAQ, the reason they wrap individually is to help prevent moisture. The individual wrap also weighs less than the heavy duty paper they would have to use to wrap 6 rolls together. Also as a company striving to lower the plastic they use, it would seem counter intuitive to then wrap them in plastic when there is an alternative available.

Why buy from Who Gives A Crap?

Who Gives A Crap was started in 2012 when the creators; Simon, Jehan and Danny came to the realisation that 2.3 billion people across the world do not have access to a toilet. They want to change this, so they donate 50% of their profits to charities to help provide toilets to those who do not have one. To date (April 5th 2020) their website states they have donated £1.5million pounds to charities.

Aren’t they made in China?

Yup! Who Gives A Crap manufacture their toilet paper and tissues in China. By manufacturing in China they are able to pass on any savings to the consumer. They are able to use readily available materials sourced locally such as bamboo and post-consumer waster paper. By using China’s materials in China they avoid importing, thus reducing carbon footprint. All their stock is sea freighted to England for distribution so there is also no air miles being used, reducing their carbon footprint even more so.

If they chose to bring production to individual countries (they sell to pretty much everywhere), the costs would put off any consumer and they wouldn’t be able to donate as much as they can.

What do we think?

I suppose the main question is, would we buy again? and yes although I probably wouldn’t choose to buy the box we did. Their isn’t anything in particularly wrong with our toilet paper and it certainly does the job! However it isn’t as soft as I thought it would be, so I would love to try the bamboo toilet paper they sell. The box we bought was the recycled toilet paper option. Next time I would happily pay the extra for the bamboo toilet rolls. These were out of stock when we placed the order.

We still have lots of toilet paper left so it will be awhile before we can try the next box. Hopefully there will be plenty of stock by then!