Australia is experiencing a surge in recycled toilet paper brands, offering consumers an eco-friendly alternative to traditional virgin-pulp products. The Australian company Who Gives a Crap (WGAC) has expanded into UK supermarkets like Tesco, while its products are already available in Woolworths, Aldi, and IGA in Australia. Despite this growth, most supermarket shelves are still dominated by plush, virgin-pulp toilet paper.
Recycled toilet paper is made from post-consumer waste paper, diverting material from landfill and reducing demand for virgin pulp. According to Elissa Foster, head of sustainability at WGAC, more than one million trees are cut down daily worldwide to produce traditional toilet paper. Encore Tissue, which produces the icare brand, estimates its recycling operations save 138,000 trees, 185 gigawatt hours of electricity, and 128,000 litres of water annually.
Jennifer Macklin, a senior research fellow at Monash University’s Sustainable Development Institute, notes that recycled paper uses less energy and water than virgin or bamboo products. Bamboo is often marketed as an eco-friendly alternative due to its rapid growth, but experts agree recycled paper is the more sustainable option. “Bamboo is a substitution strategy, less preferable than reusing existing materials,” Macklin says.
However, recycled toilet paper can be less soft and may disintegrate less effectively, affecting plumbing. Consumer advocacy group Choice warned in its 2025 review that some recycled brands did not break down quickly enough. Despite these drawbacks, WGAC reported 21% year-on-year growth in Woolworths, and icare has seen consistent sales increases.
Experts say greater consumer embrace of recycled options will encourage supermarkets to expand their ranges. Woolworths carries several recycled brands, while Coles lists only one icare product. Aldi sells limited editions of WGAC products. Home-delivery startups like Yarn’n, Oo Bamboo, About a Dog, and Emotions have also entered the market, often linking purchases to charitable donations.
