On a roll to fight climate change
Our Earth was formed some 4.5 billion years ago, with us Homo Sapiens emerging in East Africa nearly 200,000 years ago. The human population reached one billion in 1800. That number then multiplied seven-fold in only 200 years.
Over the same time period, our world emissions have followed an even greater exponential trajectory. In 2019, we emitted nearly 1300 more CO2 annually than we did in 1800. The rise in emissions and in the human population has gone hand in hand. Simple actions such as accomplishing our basic needs have an incredible impact on climate change due to the size of the world population.
Every day, 7.9 billion people use the bathroom multiple times per day. However, inequality is apparent in such a simple task as many don’t have access to an actual bathroom. A third of the world population in 2015, 2.4 billion individuals lacked access to toilets.
More recently, the World Health Organisation estimates that 4.2 billion individuals were using sanitation services in which the waste created was left untreated. That’s 53% of the world population! You can imagine the scale of the social issue, as illustrated by the 828,651 deaths arising in 2016 due to a lack of access to proper sanitation.
For those who are lucky enough to have access to toilets, their inevitable daily visits have a considerable carbon footprint. In the average American home, 27% of water consumption can be attributed to toilet usage. Globally, wastewater treatment facilities are responsible for 1.6% of greenhouse gas emissions. Today, however, we will be focusing on the carbon impact of something quite necessary during our daily visits, toilet paper!
Globally, we use 42 million tons of toilet paper every year. That is 22 billion kilometres of toilet paper, nearly 98 times the average distance between the Earth and Mars!
The production of toilet paper comes at a great environmental cost. 712 million trees are cut down every year for it, with production requiring 78 and 1,165 million tons of oil and water respectively.
Toilet paper is a good we are likely to continue to consume in the very long run, no matter the climate scenarios we will face. Could there be a more environmentally sustainable alternative?
Who Gives A Crap was founded by Simon Griffiths, Jehan Ratnatunga and Danny Alexander, three self-proclaimed toilet paper lovers. They started the company in 2012 with the objective of addressing an issue summarised in two statistics:
- As mentioned earlier, 2.4 billion individuals did not have access to a toilet when they started the company, a number which has now gone down to 2 billion!
- 289,000 children below the age of five pass away annually from diarrheal diseases caused by the lack of access to clean water and sanitation.
Who Gives A Crap is also working to address environmental sustainability issues within the industry. That’s why the toilet paper they produce is either made from 100% recycled paper or 100% bamboo fibre! Additionally, all of their shipping to consumers is carbon neutral as they purchase offsets through Pachama. Most importantly, the company donates 50% of its profits to finance the building of toilets for those who don’t yet have access to them.
Who Gives A Crap is neither a charity nor a 100% for-profit business. They are just doing great things for people and the planet. Since its inception, the company has donated 5.7 million dollars to address inequality in access to proper sanitation. As a B-Corporation, they are also recognised for meeting the highest standards of environmental and social performance!
No single individual action will contribute to reversing climate change or considerably reducing global emissions, but there is power in large numbers! We can vote with our purchasing power to support companies that have the decision-making power and influence to create change globally. We could all think of companies to support and take individual action to fight climate change, even if it is simply one wipe at a time.
