Who Gives A Crap Review 2023: Is This Bamboo Toilet Paper Any Good?

Are you thinking of buying Who Gives A Crap? Are you wondering if it’s any good and if they’re genuinely a more ethical and sustainable eco toilet paper choice? 

Good, this Who Gives A Crap review will let you in on all. 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve started to see Who Gives A Crap everywhere. From a rural pub in the Warwickshire countryside to my local sustainable shop on the high street. Maybe it’s the type of places I visit but it’s clear this toilet paper company has grown in popularity in the UK despite being an Australian brand.

This Who Gives A Crap review will take a look at the toilet roll, but also more closely at the company, how the toilet roll is made, if it’s any good and if they are a sustainable brand to buy from.

But if you’re looking for the short answer, here’s my verdict on Who Gives A Crap.

Disclaimer: I was sent a box of Who Gives A Crap recycled toilet paper to try out. This review is genuine and honest.

Who are Who Gives A Crap?

Who Gives A Crap is an Australian company founded by Simon, Jehan and Danny, and headquartered in Victoria, South-East Australia. Passionate about toilet paper, and helping improve toilet access across the globe, they launched their start-up after a crowdfunding campaign in 2012. 

As you may expect from an Australian company, their branding and general stance is on the cheeky chappy side. Toilet humour if you will. Plenty of puns and funny little quips are printed on their eye-catching packaging which always raise a little smile! Let’s not hope their product is from the toilet store then. 

Who Gives A Crap is a charitable company with a strong mission statement. It’s stated that they donate 50% of their profits to help build toilets and raise sanitation levels across the developing world. This is admirable. 

Who Gives A Crap toilet roll details

So what kind of toilet roll do Who Gives A Crap (WGAC) make? 

Who Gives A Crap produces two main types of toilet paper:

1. Recycled Toilet Paper

• Made with 100% recycled fibres coming from post consumer waste paper sources such as schools and offices
• 400 sheets of 3 ply paper
• 24 pack or 48 pack available

2. Premium Bamboo Toilet Paper

• Made from from 100% bamboo sourced from small holdings with farmers planting bamboo on their borders
• 370 sheets of 3 ply paper
• 24 pack or 48 pack available

Just for clarity, I received the 100% recycled toilet rolls.

Of the two types of toilet paper, the 100% recycled version is more environmentally friendly as an existing resource is being repurposed and reused, which significantly reduces carbon emissions and environmental impact. You can have read on the best eco friendly toilet paper here. 

Sustainably sourced bamboo materials are certainly a greener choice than timber-based products which involves tree felling. But it’s not as eco friendly as using an existing resource and not without it’s issues. You can read more on is bamboo really sustainable here.

Both of the toilet roll types have been whitened, but without the use of bleach.

Whitening toilet roll is purely done for consumer aesthetics – nothing else. WGAC know and admit this, but of course they want to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. It’d be great if they bucked the trend and made non-whitened toilet paper popular. 

On their UK website, WGAC also sell forest friendly tissue boxes, paper towels and kitchen dream cloths.

Is Who Gives A Crap toilet roll any good?

I received a big box of 100% recycled fibre toilet roll. 

If you haven’t tried recycled toilet roll paper before, there is a difference in feel. This is because the fibres have been used before, are shorter on a micro level and not quite as strong as virgin paper fibres. 

For me, this isn’t a problem at all. It’s still very good quality toilet paper, soft to the touch and will do the job for your family – as well as brightening up your bathroom with the colourful wrapping!

The other type of toilet roll that WGAC is the premium bamboo fibre one. The thousands of reviews on this tell me it’s also a good quality toilet paper. 

If you’re looking for a more eco friendly toilet roll, go with recycled. If you’re looking for a more luxury feel one, go with bamboo. Naked Sprout do a good sustainable bamboo toilet roll too, as do Bumboo. You can read my Naked Sprout review and Bumboo review here.

Both types of toilet rolls are also really long. At 400 and 370 sheets per roll, this number can be double the length of your usually supermarket toilet papers, such as Andrex, Velvet and the like. This makes the price per sheet very competitive. 

So yes, the Who Gives A Crap toilet roll is good!

Why are the toilet papers individually wrapped?

The first thing that comes to mind is that they look brilliant and really do catch the eye – whether this is online or in the toilet of a restaurant. I think there’s no doubt that this ingenious marketing trick has helped with the rapid growth of WGAC. 

Aside from the pure marketing reasons, WGAC say the wrappers help to keep the toilet paper moisture-free and hygienic. 

If they’d wrap more toilet rolls together, say 6, they’d need thicker paper. If they’d wrap more than this then they’d need to use plastic – which they say is an absolute no-on. I agree too. 

The good news is that each wrapper can be recycled, repurposed or industrially composted. WGAC even use soy-based ink that is biodegradable. Good attention to detail.

As well as recycling or composting the wrapper, you could even save it and reuse for wrapping a gift or something similar.

I’m not sure individually wrapping is entirely necessary. Perhaps a version of unwrapped toilet paper could be sold?

This is exactly what other bamboo-based toilet roll companies – both Bazoo and Bumboo who are based in the UK. They sell both unwrapped and wrappped versions of their loo rolls. Read my Bumboo toilet paper review and Bazoo toilet roll review here.

Other toilet paper manufacturers, such as Serious Tissues, package their 48 rolls unwrapped and in a recycled cardboard box. I’ve tried there’s and it was of very good quality. 

Where is Who Gives A Crap made?

Who Gives A Crap toilet paper is made in China. 

Despite perhaps an initial eye roll (from you and me), they don’t shy away from this fact and fully explain the reasoning on their website. 

It does make more sense for an Australian company to go this way.

Toilet paper manufacturers are few and far between in Australia, which comes with a cost. Those places who do produce it also have their own brands. 

Post-consumer waste paper and bamboo are also in short supply in Australia. In China, WGAC have access to a large pool of local materials, plus they can use paper wrappers and recycled cardboard boxes. 

The alternatives to produce toilet paper elsewhere may mean sourcing less sustainable materials from across the world, packaging in plastic and veering away from more eco-friendly principles.

That being said, as a whole China is not the most ethical of places and the Chinese government do run an oppressive state, which is often mentioned by Ethical Consumer.

How does Who Gives A Crap toilet paper get to the UK?

After the toilet paper is manufactured in China, it’s then put into containers and shipped across to England.

Transporting stock via sea freight as opposed to air travel and road miles cuts down on emissions. 

Carbon neutral delivery

Who Gives A Crap have made all of their shipping carbon neutral. 

Essentially, this means they pay for carbon offsets that cancel out the carbon emissions they produce. This isn’t perfect and there is always a lag in the carbon re-uptake, e.g. planting a tree will take decades to mature, but there’s no doubt this is better than not doing it. 

WGAC have partnered with Pachama to evaluate their carbon emissions and offset them. They work on some cool and important projects too, such as protecting old growth forest in Brazil and preserving tropical peat swamp forests in Indonesia, where magnificent animals such as orangutan’s live.

The ideal is for a company to reduce total emissions as well as carbon offsetting, which WGAC are. They are implementing renewable energy to power several parts of their supply chain and are looking to minimise carbon emissions during delivery. 

Do Who Gives A Crap whiten their toilet roll?

Yes, the Who Gives A Crap toilet paper is whitened. 

The good news is that they don’t use the harsh chemical of bleach to whiten their rolls. 

Instead, WGAC use a combination of hydrogen peroxide and oxygen for the recycled paper, and chlorine dioxide and hydrogen peroxide for the bamboo toilet paper. These are consider more environmentally friendly ways to whiten items, although it still requires the use of chemicals. 

There’s no fundamental reason to whiten toilet paper other than to change its appearance. For example, it doesn’t make it any cleaner or softer.

However, WGAC are looking into non-whitened bamboo toilet paper which is exciting and encouraging. 

Are Who Gives A Crap sustainable?

The question of sustainability takes into account many factors, including materials, supply chain, packaging, shipping, environmental impact and more. 

You may think that toilet paper contributes to deforestation – and the majority of the time you’d be right. 

However, Who Gives A Crap only use recycled paper or non-timber fibres i.e. bamboo which is technically a grass. 

On their website, WGAC state that their bamboo is sourced from small holdings with farmers planting bamboo on the borders of their farms. This is then harvested and locally processed. Their recycled paper supplier has also been independently audited and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council scheme and BSCI.

Both toilet roll types produced by WGAC are whitened, but as mentioned, this is done without bleach. However, you still have to use some kind of chemicals, which require manufacturing and factoring into the production process. Not whitening toilet roll altogether is a more sustainable option. 

For the glue to bind the toilet roll, Who Gives A Crap use just water and starch – no chemicals in sight here which is very sustainable 

No plastic

On a positive sustainable note, Who Gives A Crap do not use plastic. 

After using a type of oxo-biodegradable plastic for some packaging and in box inserts, WGAC transitioned away from plastics altogether in May 2020. They now don’t use plastic at all within their manufactured products.

You will still find plastic packing tape but they’re planning on removing this by the end of 2022.  

They ship their toilet roll in recycled cardboard boxes and each toilet roll is also wrapped in recyclable paper. This can also be composted in an industrial facility as the inks are soy-based.

B Corp Certified

Who Gives A Crap are a B Corp Certified company (and have been since 2016), meaning they’ve been officially assessed as a for-profit business who also acts as a force for good. You can see their B Lab marks here.

So yes, Who Gives A Crap is sustainable.

To become a more sustainable company, it’d be good to see a proper environmental report with measurable targets to help reduce their carbon emissions and environmental impact further. 

Are Who Gives A Crap ethical?

As part of their mission, Who Gives A Crap donates 50% of their profits to causes that help give people access to clean water and a toilet. 

To do this they’ve teamed up with impact partners who can help use their donations wisely. 

Some of these impact partners include:

• Splash
• WSUP (Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor)
• Water For People
• WaterAid
• Sanergy

Who Gives A Crap also score well on an ethical front from their B Corp Assessment. 

They get good marks in the community category for things such as civic engagement and giving, as well as in the workers and governance categories. 

I think this bodes well and it’s fair to say that Who Gives A Crap are an ethical company.

Who Gives A Crap toilet paper cost

On the recycled toilet paper it will cost you:

• £28 for a box of 24 toilet rolls
• £44 for a box of 48

For each of the recycled toilet rolls you get 400 sheets that are 10cm x 10cm and are 3 ply thick.  

For the premium bamboo toilet paper it will cost you:

• £30 for 24 rolls
• £48 for 48

Each of the bamboo toilet rolls are 370 sheets that are 10cm x 10cm and 3 ply thick. 

On the surface this is probably more than you usually pay for toilet roll. However, let’s look at the benefits. 

Firstly, you’re shopping with a sustainable and eco-friendly online company. Secondly, you actually get a lot of toilet roll for your money. 

For example, a quick look on a supermarket website tells me you can get a 24 pack of Cushelle for half the price but you only get 180 sheets per roll. A 24 pack of Velvet toilet paper is significantly cheaper but you only get 150 sheets per roll. 

These are less than half the amount of sheets for both the recycled toilet paper and bamboo toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap. 

Who Gives A Crap Discount Code UK

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for having a good read through.

You would have gathered that WGAC are an ethical company with some good sustainability initiatives.

If you’re looking to try them out and make a purchase you can use my Who Gives A Crap discount code.

For £5 off your first subscription order please enter the code: TINYECOHOME

Wrap up on this Who Gives A Crap review

If you’ve made it this far into my Who Gives A Crap toilet paper review – well done!

All in all, I think Who Gives A Crap produce a very good product that is sustainably made. 

It does the job that toilet roll should do, is made with the environment in mind and without cutting down trees, uses recycled materials, contains no plastic and they donate half of their profits to charitable causes. 

There are some excellent eco friendly toilet roll options out there, including Who Gives A Crap who have plans to be even more sustainable in the near future. 

If you’re looking for something more local, I particularly like Serious Tissues who collect locally recycled post consumer waste and manufacture their toilet roll from their Lancashire factory. Excellent quality and no plastic to be seen. 

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