When you're a journalist, you receive many more or less useful things: writing pads and pencils, anti-ageing cream (I mean...how do they know?), theatre seats....sometimes it can be more surprising still: a roll of toilet paper arrived at the office in a pretty tote bag.
This personal hygiene product is one the obvious supermarket purchases: you put it in your trolley without paying attention to its thickness, colour, origin our the materials it's made of.
Is that a mistake? With 18 grams per person per day, each of us in Europe consumes more than 100 rolls of toilet paper per year. Worldwide, 27,000 trees per day are mashed to produce loo roll.
Upon reading the accompanying leaflet, you learn that this eco-friendlier toilet paper is "Rolly, the toilet paper that saves the planet": this toilet paper is 100% recycled, made from tetra pak containers, which are reclaimed by a young Luxembourgish company which has found a producer in the nearby Vosges region.
Given its potential benefits for the environment, we wanted to give the product a go. We did take it home though, as it's maybe a little too indiscreet at work...
First observation: Rolly is more beige than white. Even if it's not the most aesthetically pleasing, it is good news, once you've gotten over the initial (and ridiculous) apprehension of beige meaning dirty. In fact, we have got the terrible habit of wiping our bums with chlorine bleached paper...that's not very eco-friendly! Nor is it great for our health.
Rolly's makers have taken the time to print some flowers on it to make it more fun, without using any harmful ink. The little character Rolly, which gives the product a fun touch, is an invention by illustrator Camille Sallan.
Starting a new roll of toilet paper can be a delicate issue: finding the first sheet, detaching it without shredding half the roll, successfully ripping off one spin's worth of paper before putting the roll into the dispenser.
Without even mentioning the debate about whether the sheet goes on top or at the bottom: there is no debate! The roll is positioned with the sheet on top! It is Seth Wheeler, the inventor of toilet paper himself who gives us this answer in the original patent tat he registered in the USA in 1891.
In terms of practicality, Rolly doesn't do better than his industrial competitors. It is even more difficult to start off the roll than many big brands.
Toilet paper ads always boast about the paper's thickness an softness (which are supposedly linked). When you feel it between your fingers, Rolly is clearly thinner than traditional toilet paper: it has two layers, when some others have five, which is not necessarily needed.
As Rolly doesn't contain cellulose wadding from trees, he can seem less fluffy, but not less soft.
This is basic! It's out of the question to use toilet paper that rips and lets through humidity and other stuff that ends up on your hands.
Good news, Rolly is perfectly resistant. No need to double the number of sheets you use because they feel thinner (I've got to admit that I did this to begin with), the sheets are just as absorbent as any big international brand.
Manufactured in the Greater Region, it is delivered straight to your home in a cardboard box made of 100% recycled materials and without any other packaging, neither with paper, nor with plastic.
This eco-friendly solution, naturally, is more expensive than the products sold in supermarkets. At 24 euros for 24 rolls of toilet paper, the price is much higher than that of other brands of the same thickness (roughly 8 euros), but it is less expensive than the fancy colourful paper or the five layer one that are not eco-friendly in the slightest.
The creators of Rolly also offer a subscription, which allows your to choose the quantity of toilet paper you need and the frequency of deliveries.
Whichever roll of toilet paper you choose, it is best to be forward-looking, as nobody likes to run out of toilet paper!
