Toilet Paper: Why Sugarcane is better than Bamboo
, by Maeve Reidy, 3 min reading time
Bamboo has been the Reigning Champion of eco-friendly products for many years. But there's a new kid on the block ... Sugarcane!
Bamboo has been the reigning champion of eco-friendly materials for a long time, and it’s not hard to see why. It grows fast, can be used in so many ways, and doesn’t need harmful pesticides to thrive, making it a fantastic alternative to plastic and other un-eco-friendly materials, for everything to bamboo toothbrushes, kitchen chopping boards and even clothing
In the past few years, however, there’s been a new kid on the block giving bamboo a run for its money: Sugarcane, especially in toilet paper manufacture. Not only is sugarcane less harmful to produce, but it actually prevents physical waste and sucks up more carbon emissions, too!
Here's just a few reasons why you should switch from bamboo to sugarcane toilet paper:
Reduces Deforestation
The popularity of bamboo has a major downside: people are planting bamboo groves like crazy, which means they’re clearing out big swathes of land and replacing all the existing plant life with bamboo. The side effect? The local wildlife is either kicked out of their homes or destroyed outright.
Even worse, most bamboo farms are planted as a monoculture. This means that all the other plant varieties are removed, disrupting the diversity of the ecosystem and leading to some serious knock-on effects on the environment.
In contrast, the material used in sugarcane products (like the sugarcane toilet paper from Box Depot!) is a byproduct of the sugar-making process – it’s made from the plant fibres left behind once all the sucrose has been squeezed out for sugar. Unlike bamboo, there’s no need to grow extra crops just to make sugarcane household products. This helps save land that would end up being farmed and makes them far more eco-friendly.
Reduces Waste
Using waste fibres is one step in the right direction, but sugarcane products don’t just use up those leftover fibres – they actually save them from a pretty un-eco-freindly fate!
These fibres (known as "bagasse") would usually end up in a landfill or even be burnt en masse, which isn’t terribly great for the air quality! But by giving them a second life as eco-friendly products, we avoid all that, which also help reduce pollution in the environment.
Reduces Carbon Emissions
These days, everybody seems to be obsessed with their Carbon Footprint. But plants have been working on their Carbon Footprint for millennia!
Carbon dioxide emissions play a huge role in climate change, so it’s important we find ways to remove them from the atmosphere. Luckily, lots of plants (including sugarcane and bamboo) can help with this – they absorb carbon emissions as part of photosynthesis and convert them into oxygen.
Sugarcane is what is known as a C4 plant, while bamboo is a C3 plant. This means that sugarcane is much better at soaking up carbon dioxide than bamboo is, making it more effective at reversing the impacts of climate change.
When you consider at all the benefits listed above, it’s clear that sugarcane beats bamboo in almost every way - it’s less harmful to the earth, sucks up more carbon emissions, and even recycles materials that would’ve gone to waste. This makes sugarcane the ultimate go-to for eco-friendly household products ... and why Box Depot is so excited about our exciting range of sugarcane toilet paper and washroom supplies!
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