Is Toilet Paper Biodegradable?

  • By: greenorb
  • Date: July 10, 2021
  • Time to read: 4 min.

With the increase in awareness of the rate at which paper is causing an environmental hazard, the campaign for biodegradable paper for toiletries is now on the rise.

The question “is toilet paper biodegradable”? It has opened most people’s eyes to the possibility of keeping the environment safe, but they are on the high end with pricing. 

Toilet paper is biodegradable because the production involves using some natural materials like paper-like wood pulp. Also, they can dissolve in water faster because of the texture, which makes the septic safe.

So, because they are biodegradable, they are the best to be considered for toiletries. Some other papers, aside from the biodegradable ones, can cause blockage to the toilet drain, which can affect the septic tank. 

How long does it take for toilet paper to decompose?

Now that you know toilet papers are degradable, how long does it take for toilet papers to decompose?

It is quite hard to monitor the time it will take for toilet paper to decompose, but some claim that it can take one to 3 years to get any toilet paper to decompose completely. {REF SOURCE}

The rate at which a toilet paper will decompose depends on many factors such as the thickness of the tissue, the amount of water available, and the weather condition you are exposing the paper.

However, toilet paper can dissolve, but the time it takes varies because toilet paper is made from different wood materials. 

To test how fast a toilet paper can dissolve, you can get two bottles which you can close, cut the toilet paper into pieces and put into one, take the other paper which is not of the same brand but a toilet paper and put in the second bottle. Close the two and shake well.

You will notice from the result and get to know the toilet paper that can dissolve in water.

Any toilet paper that dissolves in water will not cause any blockage or issue to your septic. 

Is toilet paper environmentally friendly?

Whatever that is environmentally friendly is safe for use. But the challenge and the reason most people have been skeptical about the use of toilet paper is that during the production of most of them, some chemical substances are involved, which can harm the environment.

So, with this in mind, most people opt for the use of recycled toilet paper.

This is because even if a toilet paper dissolves in water, a recycled one will dissolve at small water touch. After all, they contain fewer chemicals such as bleach. 

The fiber that is in the recycled paper is short and thus breaks apart, and that makes them dissolve in water without hassles.

So, on this note, you can eventually agree that recycled paper is environmentally friendly.

Which toilet paper dissolves fastest?

Many theories or stats online show toilet paper dissolves faster, but none have proven the exact time it takes toilet paper to dissolve.

However, the debate is not on whether the toilet paper can dissolve or not.

You know that it can dissolve, but the issue now is how fast it takes toilet paper to dissolve.

First, you need to know that there are different materials used in the production of toilet paper.

Honestly, they are produced from wood contents, and so the types of wood differ, which means the texture and quality of toilet papers will be different from each other.

So, with this, you can tell that the time to dissolve for toilet paper can never be the same.

The time it will take a sugar cane paper to dissolve is different from when it will take a bamboo paper to dissolve, while the time it will take papers made from hemp and kenaf to dissolve is different from the first two mentioned. 

With this in mind, you can only get to know when it takes each paper to dissolve if you carry out the test yourself.

It is easier to do. It takes you to get the materials such as different toilet papers and get a separate bowl where you put other toilet paper.

Label each bowl so it can be easy for you to identify each of them. You can go ahead and pour water into the bowl while the toilet paper is in it already.

So, you can watch to see the one that gets dissolved. With this, you can tell the toilet paper that dissolves very fast.

Conclusion

This post reveals more you need to know on the question “is toilet paper biodegradable”“?

we’ve given the right information you need to know about this question that has become a debate over the years.

After reading this post, we can quickly get to know which toilet paper is easy to dissolve and the one that is not. 

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