To combat climate change and limit deforestation, a company makes bamboo toilet paper.
Author: David Yeomans
Traditional toilet paper typically comes from cutting down old-growth trees in the Canadian boreal forest according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. The boreal forest contains one-third of Earth’s trees and is crucial for both creating the oxygen we breathe and absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide.
It is responsible for cutting down one million acres of trees every year according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, and you have some in your home right now: toilet paper.
KXAN sat down with the founders of a company who set out to find a better way to manufacture toilet paper.
After working in tech, Betterway cofounders Christian Cox and Eugenia Alliegro wanted to start a company that would make a difference for the environment.
“We didn’t want to take just a random widget and sell it,” Cox said. “We wanted to do something we could get behind.”
“It’s a product that you use for just a few seconds, but the impact is chopping down trees that have taken hundreds of years to grow,” Alliegro said.
Betterway toilet paper is made of bamboo fibers instead.
“Some bamboo species grow like, three feet overnight,” Alliegro said.