Who gives a crap? Well, we do, actually.

The Toilet Paper industry is one messy game.

No, seriously. We flush 27,000 trees a year down the toilet. Most of those trees come from the boreal forests of Canada, where mostly old, mature trees, often pine and spruce, are cut right back, making it almost impossible for the forests to regenerate.

And if that wasn’t bad enough you’ve then got to drag all those big, hard trees away from the edge of the Arctic, and proceed to process them into the smooth and quilted Charmin you’re used to. Just stop to think how much water and energy that must take. A lot would be an understatement. But wait, there’s more: bleach, formaldehyde and things called ‘organochlorides’ are used to reach the desired softness, colour and strength of your favourite brand of tissue. Feels good on the whole, doesn’t it?

Photo by Jasmin Sessler on Unsplash

Enter stage left Who Gives a Crap, operating since 2012, who sell two main products, a standard roll, made from 100% recycled paper, and a premium made from bamboo, a much greener alternative to pine trees, growing much faster, and also able to re-grow after being cut. Neither of which use any plastic in product or packaging, which means everything can be recycled too. 50% of the profits the company make go to building toilets in the developing world, which is a big deal, but not too surprising considering the co-founders’ prior experiences working at non-profits. So far, they have managed to donate US$1.7 million, to a variety of charities and organizations who install septic systems, latrines, or maintain clean and safe toilets, depending on the local area.

And if that’s not all, Who Gives are also a registered B corporation, meaning they have to abide by higher standards of environmental sustainability, fair employment practices, and transparency than a regular limited company. They also commit to 1200% more puns than any other toilet paper brand.

As for cost the rolls work out to 18.8p per 100 sheets, or £36 for a 48 roll box, delivered to your door for free. Compared to Sainsbury’s only recycled paper line at 20p per 100, that’s rather impressive. Normally in this late-capitalist world if you want ethics you have to pay for them, but Who Gives manage to compete on price too.

So much native advertising later, you may be asking: What’s the point of this post, Ace, surely, you’re not doing SponCon already?

The point is Instagram adverts work. Only after a couple of times of viewing Who Gives’ ads in our feed did Ace Voices order a whole box of 48 for use in the home office. Now, London flats being what they are (small) it was necessary to get a little creative in stashing said rolls around the place, but it’s worth it for that smug, holier-than-thou feeling you get once or twice a day. And I suppose it is also stopping children from dying and the world being on fire.

Of course, there are imitators, and while some do as laudable work as Who Gives a Crap, it must be pointed out that Who Gives success has allowed a fair number of likely lads to cash in on the ethical and environmental cred of the trailblazer. No. 2 is prime example of this, which has prettier wrapping maybe, and got featured on goop. (What hasn’t been featured on goop by now? My cousin got featured on goop, he comes to your house, eats yoghurt, and tells you how you need to check your privilege more. It’s $17,000 a month)

No.2 make a quality bamboo paper, and as a product it is environmentally sound, but unlike Who Gives a Crap they don’t donate 50% of their profits to charity. Unfortunately for the competition that’s a USP that’s hard to argue with and with Who Gives’ sales jumping by 1000% in March 2020, thanks to panic-buying, that’s a whole lot more people learning about their brand and what they’re all about, and if they’re like us here at Ace Voices, buying more.

But, trust us, don’t get it delivered to the office.

Ace x

All references above are based on Dan Nosowitz’s article on Vox which you can read here.