You’ve seen the photos and read the stories; no doubt you’ve joked with family and friends about it.  Perhaps you have also read the analyses trying to understand our fixation with toilet paper in times of this vicious virus.  We have even seen the police become involved in responding to physical violence associated with ensuring access to this apparently ‘scarce’ commodity. 

The sight of shoppers panic-buying toilet paper alongside rows of empty shelves has become one dominant image of the coronavirus pandemic worldwide.  Well, perhaps not quite worldwide, but certainly in our so-called ‘developed’ world.   

While simultaneously ensuring we have enough toilet paper, we laugh at others for their silliness.  But there is a much deeper dimension to the debate.  It many ways, it is a lightning rod around two of the most fundamental challenges humanity and the planet face: the imperative of economic growth at whatever cost; and the associated environmental wreckage which threatens everything so fundamentally.

Producers and retailers report unprecedented demand for toilet paper and for tissue products as a result of this virus.  This comes on top of year-on-year significant growth in the sector (6% average 2018 - 2020)  which outstripped growth for most other paper demands.  

Average per capita consumption of toilet paper is now 8.8kg per person, with massive regional and country variations. Americans remain among the heaviest users of tissues. While making up just 4% of the world’s population, they now consume about 20% of global tissue production.  

In Europe, the heaviest users include Sweden and Norway at the top end (at 20kgs+ per person per year); the UK and Belgium at mid-point and France and Malta at the lower end (at about 12.5kgs+ per person per year).  The use of toilet paper in developing countries is also increasing rapidly, again with very significant regional variations, although it remains at about 1kg per person per year across Africa. The heaviest users of toilet paper now consume close to 200 rolls per person per year.

A key issue associated with this expanding industry is the question of the sustainability of the resource base of tissue, especially toilet tissue.  While some manufacturers use almost entirely recycled content, others do not and some resolutely resist using it.  Many companies insist on using entirely virgin timber.  We are now even witnessing a marketing strategy that urges users to consume 3-ply and 4-ply tissue, insisting this is what ‘the market’ wants.

The largest companies with the highest market shares have the power to make a significant difference to the future of our world’s forests. Yet by sticking to old formulas and methods or by inventing new ‘needs’, they are contributing significantly to the devastation of forests.    

The saddest part of this is that it is totally unnecessary, as there are readily-available alternatives.

Apart from focusing on our ever-increasing waste and its immediate solutions, we urgently need to promote (through our consumer power, campaigning and policy) the use of more sustainably sourced wood.  The work has already been done for us; we are already in a position to choose wood-based products from forests that meet the standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).  The FSC is currently the world’s most accepted and credible independent certifier of increased timber sustainability.  To obtain certification, a logging company in any given area must promote conservation, maintain biodiversity and seek input from local communities.  Basic stuff.

Products that meet FSC’s independent standards can be accessed readily across many sectors in Malta, including for example, printing and tissue products.  As a result there is no need or excuse for using environmentally damaging timber-based products.  Simply look for the FSC logo on products and switch where possible.

So while we grapple with our obsession with toilet paper, let us not make another crisis worse by ignoring the positive and helpful actions we can take right now.  

Sadly, the bigger issue of our misplaced belief that ever-growing economic growth without serious thought for the environment will bring about our well-being remains the dominant mantra.   Already the signs are not good that we will learn from this crisis – there is a growing tsunami of interest groups demanding that we go at economic growth even more furiously post coronavirus.  

Environmental, economic and political literacy continues to be an urgent priority in Malta as elsewhere.