The toilet paper roll is about to undergo its biggest change in 100 years: going tubeless.
Seriously, it’s taken 100 years to figure this out? They figured out how to do this with wrapping paper years ago, why the hell did it take this long to figure it out for toilet paper?
On Monday, Kimberly-Clark, one of the world's biggest makers of household paper products, will begin testing Scott Naturals Tube-Free toilet paper at Walmart and Sam's Club stores throughout the Northeast.
Why the Northeast? Why are they so freakin’ special? And what about those people who have banned shopping at Wal-Mart, now they are left out in the cold.
If sales take off, it may introduce the line nationally and globally — and even consider adapting the technology into its paper towel brands.
“Consider adapting the technology into its paper towel brands”? I should hope so. Along with any other rolled items.
Here’s the thing – you know what they are going to do? They are going to charge more for the tubeless rolls, and add them to their product line rather than replacing the current product line with them. Ziploc did something similar when they introduced a plastic bag that used 30 percent less plastic. Umm, if you’re using fewer resources to make the same thing, it should not be a luxury, but rather “the way” things are done.
No, the holes in the rolls aren't perfectly round. But they do fit over TP spindles and come with this promise: Even the last piece of toilet paper will be usable — without glue stuck on it.
- Even with the tubes the holes aren’t perfectly round. Oh, yeah, they start out that way, but just the slightest bit of squeezing, damage during shipping, throwing around, etc. forces the roll to become misshapen. I don’t think it really much matters, cardboard tube or not.
- Woohoo for the last piece being useable. That’s the best part as far as I’m concerned.
News in the stagnant toilet paper industry. First of all, I find the term stagnant quite humorous when dealing with toilet paper. But that’s not my point.
Toilet paper is one of those things that is a necessity. The need doesn’t really go up year over year, it sort of remains the same. The only thing that might cause the numbers to go up will be an increase in population. But seriously, trying to read too much into the toilet paper market is sort of ridiculous.
The 17 billion toilet paper tubes produced annually in the USA account for 160 million pounds of trash, according to Kimberly-Clark estimates, and could stretch more than a million miles placed end-to-end. That's from here to the moon and back — twice.
Why are the lyrics to Savage Garden’s “To The Moon and Back” suddenly running through my head?
"We found a way to bring innovation to a category as mature as bath tissue," he says.
Ahhh, mature. There’s a better word than stagnant.
I never really thought to recycle the tubes, actually. I just randomly toss them behind the toilet and hope they actually land in the trash can. So, to be honest, I’m just thrilled about the prospect of not having to empty the bathroom trash as often. Yeah, it proves I’m lazy, but, well, it is what it is. But seriously, without toilet paper rolls, it takes awhile to fill up the trash can with nothing but Q-Tips.
He won't disclose the tubeless technology used but says it's a special winding process.
Of course he won’t. We don’t want the competition all over it. For shame to share technology that will reduce waste.
A similar process is used on tissue the company sells to businesses but not to consumers.
And they are just now rolling it out to consumers, why, exactly?
Hoover says she hopes other toilet tissue makers follow Kimberly-Clark's lead. How soon that may happen is unclear. Procter & Gamble, maker of top-seller Charmin, declined to comment.
What are they going to say? If they had the technology in the works already, they’d say, “We’re doing the same thing.” Nope, they are kicking themselves for not coming up with it first.
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