Looking for a more ethical wipe?

Hands up who has ever sat down and given some serious thought to wiping their bum?

Do you like a plush ply when you’re on the throne? Something scented? A touch of aloe vera? Or are you of the opinion that you only need budget bog roll to attend to your botty?

It might be a less-than savoury subject but every year companies like Andrex and Charmin spend thousands (and rope in cuddly puppies and cartoon koalas) to persuade us to purchase their paper.

And when you walk around the average supermarket loo roll always seems to be on offer.
But despite the special offers toilet tissue isn’t cheap - with 16 rolls of Andrex coming in at around £6 depending on where you shop.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered the hardware heaven that is Wilkinsons and bought some seriously cheap bog roll.

But are there other things we should be considering besides the price? Have you ever paused in your potty habits to consider where your toilet paper has come from our how it will be broken down once you’ve hit the flush?

Did you know, for example, that recycled toilet tissue takes 50% less energy to produce than virgin paper?

Or that when you use a loo roll with a scent or special “feature” (I have no idea how best to put that!) it includes extra chemicals that enter the sewers and water system when you flush it away?

I found an article on the Ethical Consumer website which rates well-known brands out of 20, taking into account impact on the environment, animals, people, politics and sustainability.

Top of the pile is Ecoleaf toilet tissue, with a rating of 16, followed by Essential recycled toilet tissue at 14, Traidcraft at 13.5, and then Andrex at 10 and Charmin at 9.

Interestingly the supermarkets’ own brands come out right at the bottom (no pun intended), with Asda Shades scoring 0, Sainsbury’s Revive recycled loo roll at 1.5, Morrisons recycled toilet tissue scoring 2 and Tesco Value scoring 2.5.

Unfortunately you have to subscribe to see the full report and its not clear when it was produced, but it appears the supermarkets are lagging behind (again no pun intended).

Neil and I are coming to the end (AGAIN, no pun intended!) of our Wilkos loo roll so I set out yesterday lunchtime to see if I could find an ethical alternative.

The World Wildlife Fund offers some easy advice for shoppers trying to make more ethical toilet roll purchases on its website. It suggests looking for a high recycled content, the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo that indicates the paper has been produced from sustainable wood sources, and avoiding the whitest products which tend to be more heavily bleached.

And I have to say the bog roll hunt turned out to be much easier than I thought - I scored a jackpot in the first shop I went into, although admittedly I did choose carefully. I found Ecoleaf Toilet Tissue (the one rated most ethical) at SoundBites - the wholefoods shop in Derby.

And at £1.99 for four rolls it wasn't bad on the back pocket either. A quick look on the Tesco website tells me that the supermarket sells four rolls of Andrex for £1.99 and its own brand Luxury Soft toilet tissue retails at £1.89.

This a great news as I was thinking that if it had turned out to be more expensive I may have had to introduce a three-sheet per sitting rule, which might not have been well received at home!

The Ecoleaf packaging (which, incidentally, is fully compostable) tells me that the toilet tissue is made from 100% recycled fibres sourced within the UK, including from kerbside council recycling collections and greetings card manufacturers' waste. Suma, the firm that makes Ecoleaf, also works with a community group called Treesponsibility to plant trees.

Looks like we'll be enjoying a guilt-free wipe from now on....