We did a lot of sourcing work and experimenting before settling on the bamboo fibres we use in our premium toilet paper, and blended together with sugarcane in our tissues and kitchen towel. Using bamboo has helped us create even more durable paper fibres that are as good as anything you’d find in the supermarket.
Bamboo is a great sustainable option as it’s naturally fast growing and rapidly renewable. It also uses far less land than trees and produces less particulate matter and CO2 emissions per tonne of paper produced. It requires no tending, irrigation or fertilisation and only needs to be harvested once a year (it grows back very quickly after harvesting, as it’s technically a grass).
Our bamboo is predominantly grown in remote areas of Sichuan Province, China often by local farmers who plant bamboo on the outskirts of their family farms to supplement their income. Unlike industrial plantation agriculture (like special forests created for toilet paper and other paper products) this type of bamboo cultivation doesn't require large scale land clearing. On top of this, much of the bamboo processing is highly localised. Where this model is used each village has their own bamboo co-op and after it has been harvested, it gets chipped and then goes to a local pulp factory.