Naked Sprout Review 2023: My View On This Eco Toilet Paper

27,000 trees are cut down every day to make toilet paper. 

Not with the Naked Sprout toilet roll though. 

Providing an answer to unnecessary deforestation, Naked Sprout use sustainable bamboo tissue products instead that are manufactured at a certified carbon neutral factory.

I’ve trialled Naked Sprout’s toilet paper and kitchen roll and I’m here to give you my honest verdict. 

In short, it’s overwhelmingly positive. I think Naked Sprout is a brilliant choice if you’re looking for an eco friendly, bamboo toilet paper.

In my Naked Sprout reviews, I’ll take a look at the company, my experience of the products and the product journey from plant to your home.

I’ll give my honest opinion on how sustainable I think Naked Sprout are, plus answer a few FAQs on the way. 

What are the Naked Sprout products like?

Now you’ve been introduced, let’s get straight onto the products themselves.

I recently received a pack of toilet paper and a kitchen roll to try out. So, how did I find them?

Materials

For all of their products – toilet paper, kitchen roll and tissues – Naked Sprout use FSC certified sustainable bamboo (more on this shortly). 

The bamboo isn’t treated with any form of bleach, harsh chemicals, dyes, scents or adhesives. 

Both the Naked Sprout toilet paper and kitchen roll are 2 ply thick.

Colour

All of the Naked Sprout products come unbleached. This means their appearance is slightly different from the usual white toilet paper you may be used to. 

White toilet paper is white because it’s bleached. This is usually done with harsh chemicals. Bleaching toilet paper is purely for aesthetics and has no other purpose. 

The Naked Sprout products come as a natural, light brown colour. For me this makes no difference. I actually like the natural look and I’d rather the paper not be treated with chemicals. 

For others it can be slightly off-putting but after a little while you’ll get used to it. 

Texture

I must say, the texture is very soft. 

I did a little touch test against some of their not-so-eco competitors, as well as some eco toilet paper brands. Naked Sprout come out very well on the softness test. 

Overall quality

Naked Sprout reduced the ply of their toilet roll from 3 to 2 layers, whilst maintaining the same thickness (still 45 GSM).

They say this hasn’t impacted the overall quality, but it has helped to reduce energy usage by 33%. 

For me and my family, the quality was very good. With just 2 ply, the paper didn’t rip or feel thin. A good move in my opinion. 

Packaging

Naked Sprout use minimal packaging.

The products come in a simple, recyclable cardboard box. This is similar to how Serious Tissues do it. The toilet rolls are not individually wrapped, unlike say Who Gives A Crap toilet roll and some boxes also offered by Bumboo and Bazoo.

This is great from a waste perspective as it really helps to reduce unnecessary materials.

The inner core of the toilet paper and kitchen roll is made from recycled cardboard.

Thanks to customer feedback, Naked Sprout have removed tape from their boxes, stopped printing on the cores and instead of a welcome note, they print on the box in soy ink. Very good.

Naked Sprout environmental impact

When looking at the environmental impact of any company, you need to consider different aspects of the business. 

The first thing to note is that Naked Sprout are a Certified B Corp, meaning they aim to do good for the planet and have been certified to have good initiatives in place.

In 2022, Naked Sprout published an environmental impact report. Let’s take a look at the main sustainability touch points and weigh them up.

Materials

Naked Sprout use FSC certified virgin bamboo to make their products. 

Importantly, no harsh chemicals or plastics go into their tissue products. So that’s no bleach, no BPA, no de-inking agents, sodium hydroxide, filler, scents or dyes. A great start. 

Without these, we’re left with simple bamboo. So is bamboo really sustainable? 

The first thing to consider is that bamboo is a plant, not a tree. It’s also one of the fastest growing plants and reaches maturity within 4-6 years. 

When bamboo is harvested, it grows back rapidly. All the time absorbing carbon dioxide. Like the harvesting of a sustainable cork tree, bamboo can be harvested every 4 years. The other good thing with bamboo is that it doesn’t require pesticides and fertilisers.

Almost all commercial bamboo is grown in China. This is where the Naked Sprout bamboo comes from. As you know China is a long way from the UK and takes energy to ship over. 

Manufacturing: How and where are the products made?

Naked Sprout products are now made from a factory in Europe. Not any factory, but the first B Corp certified tissue factory in the world. 

Achieving B Corporation status is a great achievement and really does show your positive sustainability credentials. 

The carbon neutral certified factory is powered entirely by renewable energy. This comes from hydro, wind, an on-site biomass plant and over 8,000 solar panels. Impressive. 

All tissue making requires a lot of water. Naked Sprout use a nearby river source for theirs. As they have an on-site chemical free wastewater treatment plant, they can return the water back to the river in the same condition they got it. 

Naked Sprout are working towards a zero waste future. 

How are the products transported?

The bamboo from China is transported to the European factory by sea freight. 

From the carbon neutral factory, sea freight is used again to get the products to the UK. Naked Sprout use the closest possible ports to their factory and warehouse to minimise road miles. 

In the UK, Naked Sprout use DPD as their delivery partner. DPD are said to be one of the most sustainable delivery companies at the minute. Around 10% of their fleet is made up of electric vehicles, and they’re investing more in this space. 

Other environmental initiatives 

• Every purchase helps provide a child in Kenya with safe drinking water at school – Just a Drop. In 2021 Naked Sprout donated £25k to Just a Drop, a charity who provide safe drinking water and handwashing facilities around the world. Naked Sprout’s £25k was enough to help 50,000 children in Kenya access clean water.
• All staff work from home.
• Any unavoidable emissions associated with energy and water are offset with the World Land Trust Carbon Balanced Programme. 

So, is Naked Sprout toilet paper eco friendly? 

All considered, I think Naked Sprout have created a very eco friendly toilet paper. 

The company has considered all aspects of the product journey, from the very start to the very end. 

Yes they do use Asian grown bamboo, which of course would be better if it was grown closer to the UK. Despite this, Naked Sprout say it has a lower carbon footprint than using recycled paper. 

They’ve also reduced their environmental impact as much as possible during the middle part through a number of initiatives. 

These include selecting a carbon neutral factory, only using cardboard for packaging and using no environmentally harmful chemicals in the products. 

So, overall yes Naked Sprout are eco friendly!

Who are Naked Sprout?

You’ve got this far, but who exactly are Naked Sprout?

Naked Sprout are a small British business founded in 2019. They are based in Dorset, right on the south coast of the UK, and have three directors: Tom Whelan, Charlotte Whelan and Leila Francis Coleman.

Naked Sprout specialise in producing eco friendly toilet paper, kitchen roll and tissues. They make all their products from unbleached bamboo. 

Just like me, they believe in making small everyday changes to live a more sustainable life. Their mission is to reduce the negative impact of tissue products in four main areas:

• Chemicals entering our waterways
• Use of plastic
• Deforestation
• Carbon footprint

From their online shop, they sell toilet roll and other eco products to the public. They also have a wholesale ordering platform for businesses to stock Naked Sprout. 

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap – it’s the battle of the bamboo toilet papers! But who’s the winner?

To decide this, let’s take a look at each of the main areas identified above. I haven’t compared here, but you might want to take a look at my Bumboo toilet paper review too and my Bazoo toilet paper review.

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap: Materials

We know both toilet paper companies use bamboo sourced from China. So is there any difference? 

The big difference is that Naked Sprout use FSC certified bamboo forests. WGAC don’t. However they do state that they use small family farms.  

Winner: Naked Sprout

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap: Colour & texture

The texture of both toilets is very similar. In fact, almost identical I’d say. Both are very soft. 

Colour is the big difference, so this may be a personal preference. White is the obvious choice because it’s what we all know, but I’m growing to love the more natural colour. Just as I have with my brown compostable coffee filters. 

Winner: Draw

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap: Manufacturing 

WGAC use manufacturing facilities in China, whereas Naked Sprout ship their bamboo to a certified carbon neutral factory in Europe. 

Who Gives A Crap may have their hands tied slightly as their main base is in Australia. They state that Australian toilet tissue manufacturers are few and far between. Plus they didn’t offer many environmentally friendly benefits e.g. no plastic wrappers. 

At least WGAC are transparent about this. 

With Naked Sprout, there’s a lot of detail behind the eco friendly credentials of the manufacturing facilities they use. This includes being 100% powered by renewable energy and having an eco waste water works on site.

Winner: Naked Sprout 

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap: Packaging

Who Gives A Crap may look very eye-catching, but compared to Naked Sprout, they use a lot more packaging to individually wrap each toilet roll. 

The positive at least is that the individual wrappers are recyclable and they don’t use toxic inks. 

Naked Sprout don’t individually wrap toilet paper, instead they come stacked in the cardboard box. 

Both companies use a recyclable cardboard box as their main vessel of packaging. 

Winner: Naked Sprout 

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap: Environment

Both companies are certified B Corporations. This is great. 

Naked Sprout have published an environmental report. I can’t see the equivalent for WGAC. 

Naked Sprout have also initiated a number of positive eco changes, including the removal of all plastic, removal of tape and no use of chemicals.

Who Gives A Crap still use plastic tape and whiten their bamboo toilet paper through a combination of Chlorine Dioxide and Hydrogen Peroxide. 

Winner: Naked Sprout

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap: Cost 

On like for like toilet roll numbers, Naked Sprout comes in cheaper than Who Gives A Crap. 

For a box of 48 bamboo toilet rolls, you’ll pay £48 with WGAC and £39.99 with Naked Sprout. For a box of 24 rolls, it’s £30 vs £23.50 in favour of Naked Sprout. 

However, that doesn’t tell us the whole picture. 

With Who Gives A Crap you get 370 x 3 ply sheets. With Naked Sprout it’s 320 x 2 ply sheets.

Who Gives A Crap cost per 100 sheets = 27p 

Naked Sprout cost per 100 sheets = 26p

Winner: Draw (given the extra ply with Who Gives A Crap)

Naked Sprout vs Who Gives A Crap: Overall quality

There’s not much in this one. Both products are good, so I’ll have to put it down as a draw. 

The overall winner is a clear Naked Sprout for me. 

How much does Naked Sprout cost?

So, how much does it cost to buy a pack of Naked Sprout? 

Toilet roll

All box size varieties of Naked Sprout toilet roll come in double length rolls. All have 320 sheets per roll at 2 ply thickness. 

Prices are: 

• 24 box – 23.50
• 48 box – 39.99
• 98 box – 75.99

You can easily work out the cost per sheet with a simple formula: (Total price / total number of rolls / number of sheets) x 100. 

With this in mind, Naked Sprout comes in between 24p and 30p per 100 sheets. 

How does this compare to your common supermarket brands?

A 24 pack of Andrex Gentle Clean is £10.95. With 170 sheets per roll this equates to 27p per 100 sheets. Very similar to our eco friendly varieties. 

A 4 pack of Asda Shades double roll is £3.45. This works out at 27p per 100 sheets.

Buying in bulk always helps. For example, a 4 pack of Cushelle quilted toilet roll at £3.55 works out at 56p per 100 sheets!

Kitchen roll 

The Naked Sprout kitchen roll comes in 4 different pack sizes. Each has 100 sheets per roll and are 2 ply thick. 

Prices are: 

• 6 rolls 11.99
• 18 rolls 35.95
• 24 rolls 47.50
• 30 rolls 56.95

Working these out on a cost per 100 sheets basis, the price ranges from £1.99 to £1.89 per 100 sheets. 

There’s compare this to Plenty kitchen roll. A 4 pack with 100 sheets each costs £8.45. The cost per 100 sheets here is £2.11. More expensive than Naked Sprout. 

Asda’s own Shades kitchen roll works out as £1.03 for a 4 pack, which is cheaper. 

With all Naked Sprout products you can subscribe for regular deliveries and save for 10% off. There’s no contract and you can unsubscribe at any time. You have various options of delivery from every 3 weeks to every 96 weeks! 

I haven’t tried this feature so I can’t comment on how easy it is, but it does sound straightforward.  

Naked Sprout Discount Code

Just like many Naked Sprout reviews, this one is another thumbs up vote for the toilet roll.

If you’re thinking of giving them a try, head over to the online shop and don’t forget to use the code TINYECO for 10% off. 

I don’t think you’ll regret it!

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