A Small Change That Matters More Than You Think

I stumbled across Who Gives A Crap one quiet Sunday morning, in that in-between moment after breakfast but before the day truly begins.  I was reading an article on the environmental cost of paper products; of all things!  A small link at the bottom led me to their homepage.  The name made me smile (how could it not?) but what I found there stayed with me far longer than just the morning.

We rarely think about toilet paper, do we? It’s one of those everyday necessities that we take for granted, and yet the production of it, particularly when made from virgin wood pulp is quietly devastating.  Every year, millions of trees are felled for a product we literally flush away.  It’s something I hadn’t thought deeply about, or chosen to quietly ignore, until I read that a single tree takes decades to grow… and just a few seconds to become paper.

What moved me most was not just the company’s humour, or their absolutely brilliant branding, because, let’s face it, it IS truly brilliant.  It was their values. Who Gives A Crap makes toilet paper from 100% recycled paper or bamboo, they donate 50% of their profits to help build toilets and improve sanitation in developing countries.  Their packaging is plastic-free and joyful.

Admittedly, it’s not the cheapest toilet paper you’ll ever buy.  But I find myself increasingly drawn to the idea that where we can, we should make more mindful choices, even in the smallest corners of our lives.  It’s super easy to feel powerless in the face of deforestation or climate news, but something as simple as choosing paper that hasn’t come at the cost of a forest feels like a quiet kind of activism that I, personally, can stand behind.

If you’re thinking about making small swaps in your home this winter, this might be a good place to start.