British retailers revolutionize the tissue market with 100% recycled toilet paper products

Leading supermarket chain Tesco has partnered with its supplier, WEPA, to implement an innovative process for recycling used cardboard boxes into high-quality toilet rolls. This new technology makes use of large quantities of corrugated cardboard to produce premium toilet paper and kitchen towels.

The process involves combining recycled cardboard, such as home delivery boxes and corrugated supermarket cards, with other recycled paper materials. These materials are then mixed with water to form a pulp, which is then subjected to a meticulous cleaning process to obtain fibers suitable for papermaking.

This manufacturing method consumes fewer resources, including water, chemicals and energy, compared to the traditional process of using tree fibers. The resulting paper products have an unbleached quality, which gives them a distinctive beige tone.

Tesco has introduced three new products to its own-brand line, including a 100% recycled brown tea towel and 100% recycled brown luxury soft luxury toilet tissue, available in packs of four and six long rolls. These products, considered pioneering in the supermarket arena, offer consumers eco-friendly options with superior softness and absorbency.

 

These novelties are currently available in 100 Tesco Extra stores across the country, with plans for future expansion. Philip Banks, Tesco’s household category director, highlighted the positive impact of this manufacturing process in reducing waste and promoting sustainable practices.

In addition, budget supermarket chain Aldi is conducting trials with double toilet rolls to reduce plastic waste and the frequency of delivery trucks. This initiative, underway in the West Midlands, East Midlands and Yorkshire counties of the United Kingdom, involves increasing the number of sheets per roll in selected own-brand products, thereby reducing the size of packaging and potentially eliminating more than 60 tons of plastic packaging per year.

The more compact packaging would make it easier to transport additional products by truck, which would help reduce associated carbon emissions. Customers in the trial areas have access to double toilet rolls in different pack sizes, from four to twelve packs. Luke Emery, Aldi’s plastics and packaging director, noted “At Aldi, we are working diligently to decrease our environmental footprint wherever possible, continually looking for novel methods to achieve positive change. Reducing plastic waste and carbon emissions associated with such a widely used product will produce a substantial positive impact, exemplifying just one of the many exciting changes we have in store.”