Introduction
Whether you are an avid user of bamboo toilet paper and have been using it for years, or someone who had just discovered that toilet paper is a significant cause of deforestation and want to try an eco friendly alternative, you probably still care about price. Who doesn’t?
Being an advocate for sustainability doesn’t mean you suddenly have the riches to buy an electric car, expensive bike to avoid public transport or even the extra few pounds it takes to buy an alternative to normal toilet paper, including bamboo toilet paper.
The good news is that in 2024, there is no longer only one bamboo toilet paper brand, but many. As more companies enter the bamboo toilet paper industry in the UK, two good things happen.
- More people find out and start to try bamboo toilet paper, as the marketing campaigns of these companies takes effect
- Competition between companies generally means that they will become more competitive on price.
Frustratingly however, even after some in depth research into the topic, I could not seem find a simple table or chart comparing the prices of popular brands on a like for like basis.
Price is obviously not the only consideration of consumers, including myself, but with companies charging different amounts for varying amounts of rolls per box, varying ply count per roll (eg 1ply,2ply or 3ply) and even varying roll sizes from 180 sheets all the way to 370 sheets, it is not even that straightforward to make comparisons.
I therefore set out to compare the prices of bamboo toilet paper brands in the UK on a like for like basis, and present them in a (hopefully) easy to follow table.
Before we go on any further, I would like to clarify that this analysis of prices has no impact on the quality of the underlying toilet rolls, and it may be that companies who charge higher prices also provide bamboo toilet paper of a higher quality.
However, this comparison of prices hopefully helps keen users of bamboo toilet paper to try other brands, who may be cheaper but maintain just the same level of quality.
Or, it may even help consumers who are completely new to the industry select a bamboo toilet paper option which is within their budget.
Conditions to make the price comparison on a like-for-like basis
As noted above, there are several qualities of bamboo toilet paper that must be considered before a like for like comparison can be made:
- Whether the bamboo toilet paper is 1ply, 2ply or 3ply. Toilet paper is usually manufactured by creating extremely thin sheets of paper which are then stacked on top of each other to create the desired thickness and quality of the end product. It follows that 1ply toilet paper uses only one of these sheets of paper, whilst 2ply and 3ply involves stacking 2 and 3 of these thin sheets on top of each other.
We have made our comparison of prices on a 3ply basis only, as this is what most bamboo toilet paper companies sell, unless the company in question only sells 2ply, in which case we highlight this in the notes to our table.
- Number of rolls – whilst bamboo toilet paper companies typically offer anywhere from 4 rolls to 64 rolls per box, we have chosen the price of a box of 48 rolls to make our comparison. This is because as the number of rolls sold increases, the price typically decreases to reflect this, and it follows that boxes of 48 bamboo toilet paper rolls appear to be most popular with eco friendly consumers.
- Number of sheets – you may have noticed when in supermarkets across the UK that toilet paper prices are often presented “per 100 sheets”. Given the varying number of sheets per roll of even popular mainstream brands, supermarkets present the cost of toilet paper “per 100 sheets”.
For example, if a box of 10 toilet rolls is £10, and each roll contains 200 sheets, the cost per 100 sheets will be 50p.
We will therefore present the price of each brand per 100 sheets, so as to ensure that companies who sell rolls with less or more sheets per roll do not appear to be cheaper or more expensive!
- We only included companies if they sold 100% bamboo toilet paper. In order to ride the bamboo toilet paper wave, some multinational companies have produced bamboo toilet paper with only a small proportion of bamboo (normally in the small print!). These companies will not make our list as their “bamboo mix” products still require lots of trees to be cut down. And that’s not cool!
- We made no distinction between unbleached and bleached toilet paper as we have found that this does not seem to impact price. We have also made no distinction between wrapped and unwrapped toilet paper, despite there often being a slight price difference if the same company offers both options.
Companies included in the comparison
As noted in our introduction, there are now a lot of companies selling bamboo toilet paper in the UK, and it would be impossible to include every single one in our list below. We have therefore only included companies based in the UK or who have a significant amount of sales in the UK.
We feel our list of 20 companies is pretty comprehensive, but if there are any new companies that this blog has missed out, please reach out and I will add them in!
List of bamboo toilet paper brands by price per 100 sheets:
The table below lists bamboo toilet paper brands in the UK from cheapest to most expensive (please also see notes below the table):
Company |
Price per 100 sheets |
Gompels (Note 1 below) |
13.6p |
Boono Bamboo (Note 2 below) |
20p |
Panda Soft |
21.7p |
Naked Sprout (Note 3 below) |
26p |
Bazoo |
26p |
The Good roll (Note 4 below) |
26p |
Who Gives a Crap |
27p |
28.6p |
|
Nova Tissue (Note 5 below) |
29.7p |
Unigreen (Note 6) |
30.2p |
Bumboo |
30.5p |
Mellcrest (Note 7) |
32.2p |
Plaine toilet roll (Note 8) |
32.2p |
37.3p |
|
37.5p |
|
Cheeky Panda |
41.6p |
Life Supplies (Note 9 below) |
54p |
Bower Collective |
54.6p |
Shearwatereco (Note 10) |
N/A |
Note 1 - Gompels only has a 2ply option, therefore the price for 2ply has been included, despite most other prices above being for 3ply.
As the cheapest bamboo toilet paper on the list, it is worth noting that although the website is not very flashy, the company does appear to be legitimate. Their companies house filings show that they were incorporated over two decades ago, although the website notes that the company’s history stretches back much further than this.
Given I haven’t ordered this company’s bamboo toilet paper myself, I cannot tell whether the cheap price reflects the potentially poor quality of the toilet paper as compared to other bamboo toilet paper brands, or whether the company has positioned this product as a “loss leader”, that is a product sold at a loss to tempt you to return and buy other products from the same company, which will have profitable margins.
Note 2 – As the second cheapest option on the list, it is worth noting that the website appears to be a little clunky, and without much attention to aesthetics or user friendliness.
Given I haven’t ordered this toilet paper myself, it is difficult to tell whether the basic website and cheap price implies a company seeking to increase market share with cheap prices, or otherwise.
The privacy policy lists a company which was formed in 2006 and specialises in “body storage and medical supplies”, so it appears strange that more effort has not been made to design a more user friendly and aesthetically pleasing website, especially if the company itself is not brand new and has potentially a good amount of capital for investment.
All in all, as with any product you purchase on the internet which is much cheaper than its competitors, its worth taking appropriate precautions.
Update* - since first writing this blog, several of Boono's customers have helpfully reached out to us noting that in their view, the toilet paper is good quality, and is delivered speedily. If this is indeed the case, Boono would appear to be a good option for buying your bamboo toilet paper, although until we have tried the toilet paper ourselves, we cannot make a recommendation!
Note 3 – Naked sprout only has a 2ply option, therefore the price for 2ply has been included, despite most other prices above being for 3ply
Note 4 – Good Roll only has a 2ply option and the largest box of rolls is 24 rolls, therefore the price for a box of 24 rolls of 2 ply toilet paper has been included, despite most other prices above being for 3ply and boxes of 48 rolls
Note 5 – There only appeared to be a 32 roll box option on the site, hence I have calculated the price per 100 sheets using this, despite most other prices being for boxes of 48 rolls. Moreover, there only appeared to be a 2ply option.
Note 6 - There only appeared to be a 28 roll or 56 roll box option on the site, hence I have calculated the price per 100 sheets using the 56 roll box option, despite most other prices being for boxes of 48 rolls.
Note 7 - There only appeared to be a 36 roll box option on the site, hence I have calculated the price per 100 sheets using this, despite most other prices being for boxes of 48 rolls.
Note 8 – There only appeared to be a 40 roll box option on the site, hence I have calculated the price per 100 sheets using this, despite most other prices being for boxes of 48 rolls.
Note 9 – There only appeared to be a 24 roll box option on the site, hence I have calculated the price per 100 sheets using this, despite most other prices being for boxes of 48 rolls.
Note 10 – There appeared to be no information as to the number of sheets per roll, and therefore whilst the individual rolls appeared to be well priced, we could not determine an exact price per 100 sheets for a comparison with all the other brands listed above
Conclusion
It is amazing to see the huge range of prices, from as low as 13.6p per 100 sheets, to as high as 54.6p per 100 sheets.
Taking a straight average of all the prices gives 31.8p per 100 sheets, and it is unsurprising that many of the biggest brands in the industry have priced their toilet paper slightly above or below this figure.
As has been referenced several times throughout this blog, our intention has not been to find out the best bamboo toilet paper, which we will cover in a different blog, but to simply give some context to the price you may pay for your go to brand, or to give an anchor to those new to the industry. Further, the huge range in price shows that, ignoring quality, there are cheaper options for the more thrifty eco-friendly shoppers amongst us.
What if you have read this article about the prices of bamboo toilet paper in the UK, and are still unsure of what to do next?
Our recommendation would be to request samples from a cheap, medium and expensively priced brand on the list to compare quality. If you find the difference in quality to be small, it may be safe to go for a cheap or medium priced option.
If the difference in quality is significant, it may be wise to either choose a higher quality brand and be willing to pay a higher price, or choose a cheap option and be content with a lower quality level!