How is recycled toilet paper made?

Jan 20, 2021
1 min read

When people hear about recycled toilet paper, oftentimes the first thought is "What the?!" And understandably so. When we think about recycled goods, we tend to think that it is recycled from the thing that it is. Hence, recycled toilet paper is recycled toilet paper, right? No. Wrong. Thankfully, that is completely incorrect. Because... Gross.

Recycled toilet paper is made from recycled paper. The kind that you print or write on, not the kind that you, you know. And the process is actually very cool, not to mention environmentally beneficial.

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How recycled toilet paper is made

While you shouldn't try this at home, you may be curious about how we make recycled toilet paper.

As mentioned above, the starting material is recycled paper. Bales of it are taken -- icare only used high-quality office paper -- and put into a pulping machine. This pulping machine is filled with warm water to turn the paper into paper pulp, and air bubbles are injected into the water to help remove ink and other colours. This makes bubbles on the surface, which are skimmed away, removing the colour from the pulp.

Part of the reason we use office paper for our toilet paper is that it is whiter from the start and allows us to avoid using bleach, it's also a higher quality paper, and you get out what you put in. icare only uses high-grade inputs so that we get high-grade outputs.

Through the boiling process, the paper is broken down into individual fibres, to the same level as if it were wood pulp being used to make paper. This process thoroughly cleans the paper and readies it for setting and drying.

Squeezing the water out by rollers, which the paper pulp is passed through, it is then laid thinly onto a flat surface which runs through a dryer. In just a few moments, the paper is dry and is ready to be rolled onto a large spool, where it waits to be embossed.

For two or more-ply paper, the rolls of paper are put through a machine that rolls them together. Once complete, the long roll is cut into the roll size we are all familiar with on the supermarket shelves, and the recycled toilet paper is ready to sell.