Their colourful wrapping brightens up the shop, and helps shade products from the strong summer sun! Some customers choose the wrapper colour that goes best with their bathroom. Some customers only want the red “emergency” ones! It’s time to give Who Gives A Crap (WGAC) the Producer Spotlight treatment.

Where do WGAC come from?

It all started in Australia in 2012 as a way of raising awareness about lack of access to toilets and poor sanitation. At the time 2.4 billion people globally did not have access to a toilet. WGAC donate 50% of their profits to build toilets and improve sanitation.

Why did we choose their toilet roll?

Standard toilet paper uses virgin trees. WGAC estimates that globally 42 million tonnes of toilet paper is used a year!!!
We wanted toilet paper with a lower impact. Their recycled paper uses 95% post consumer waste and 5% post industrial waste. Paper that’s had a previous life as another product, or waste from another industry. They pulp the clean fibres at super high temperatures, ensuring the paper is biodegradable, safe in septic tanks, and as strong as it is soft. They don’t test on animals, only on the finest human bottoms ;-)
The waste paper is from sources that shouldn’t contain BPA’s but they also test to make sure no BPA’s have snuck in.
The rolls are twice as long as most other rolls and have a thinner middle tube. Saving space and packaging.

What about the bamboo option?

The bamboo option is softer, but we felt the recycled option fitted the shop’s values better. Bamboo still has to be grown and harvested.

Why are they individually wrapped?

This avoids plastic, and the weight of paper to wrap 6 rolls in paper, as opposed to 6 individually, is the same.

Rolls have to be wrapped to prevent moisture (or anything else) getting into them.

The recognisable branding makes the rolls; a discussion point, bathroom accessory, styling item, value defining, sharable and many other points!

Without a big budget, people sharing and talking about the toilet paper, is the main marketing strategy.

Whilst recyclable, or home compostable, the wrappers are so nice they can also be reused. I have personally used them to make Christmas crackers! But mainly they add much needed balance to my home composting.

Where are they made?

Currently it is made in China. Since 2023 WGAC has a facility here in the UK, but they are only able to make tissues and kitchen roll. There is very limited capacity here for producing recycled toilet paper. However they still want to find a way to make this happen, watch this space.

The Boxes

The rolls come to us in boxes of 48. We like all our boxes to have a second life. Customers, staff and volunteers take boxes for storage, composting, no dig gardening, moving house and many other uses. The WGAC boxes are especially useful as they are sturdy! Ask in the store if you need boxes.

Donate 50% of their profits

From the beginning WGAC has been all about improving sanitation around the world. They currently donate 50% of their profits to sanitation projects. However they use the money to partner with existing charities and organisations. This ensures that existing networks, infrastructure and local needs are taken into consideration.

Find out the current total raised and more details on their website.

WGAC don’t take themselves too seriously!

Installing solar panels on your factory roof doesn’t normally make the news, or get shared, that much. Unless you include the word “CRAP”.

Read more about this brilliant stunt here.

Why don’t we stock the tissues and kitchen roll?

The options for reusable washable tissues (hankies) and kitchen roll (cloths) are easily available. Reusable cloths are stocked by us. We prefer a reuse option where practical.

Of course reusable toilet roll (family cloth) does exist and is some people's choice.

Have you seen their new book?

Check out the details here.