This Is The Best Toilet Paper For People Who Love Their Butt & The Planet

Sustainable but still soft.

Hey you, yes you, one of many people who just-really-loves your fluffy toilet paper. Did you know that you're contributing to the literal flushing of at least nine million trees per year down the toilet?

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That's like, 27,000 trees each and every day, just flushed away. Because y'all, that's what most fluffy, luxe toilet paper is: new, not-recycled fiber from trees (usually a mix of different kinds of trees, including eucalyptus, pictured above), processed with lots of water and then bleached into the fluffy white squares you reach for several times each day. Oh, and that's not to mention the 37 gallons of water it takes to make each roll.

(Yes, some or most of that fiber is likely to be FSC-certified and thankfully not from 300-year-old trees/"old growth" forests. All of the FSC-certified mainstream T.P. brands that aren't recycled are certified "mix", not "100%", which means the virgin wood pulp it’s made from is probably sourced from responsibly managed forests or controlled wood. As in, nothing is guaranteed, but the companies do try and do the right thing, knowing they can't really make soft and fluffy T.P. using recycled fiber. STILL. NINE MILLION TREES.)

Thankfully, there's an INCREDIBLY easy way to take a step toward lowering that massive environmental impact: switch to recycled toilet paper!

Besides saving trees, recycled TP production takes 50% less water, 64% less energy, and makes 74% less air pollution than fluffy not-recycled TP. And most importantly: it still gets the job done, no problem.

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Just imagine the impact your ONE home could make if you swapped out for just one month — or decided to make the change permanent! (Those figures are according to Your Best Digs.)

Besides that, it's processed-chlorine-free (aka PCF), meaning the paper it’s recycled from may have been chlorine-bleached, but they didn’t use any more bleach when they made it. Instead, they whiten it with non-chlorine-based bleaching alternatives, like hydrogen peroxide.

Those fluffier virgin-pulp toilet papers are only Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) — meaning that while they're not bleached with straight-up environment-destroying elemental chlorine, they are still bleached with chlorine dioxide, which produces toxic byproducts that end up in waterways.

(Seventh Generation does make a 100% recycled unbleached toilet paper. It's $49.87 for 48 rolls on Amazon, or about $0.03/square foot, a little pricier than the whitened stuff but about the same price as most fluffy TPs.)

"Sure," you may say, "but don't most recycled TPs feel like sandpaper?" I'm here to tell you: unfortunately, many kinda do. But one stands up to the softness test! Seventh Generation 100% Recycled Extra Soft & Strong.

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I promise they're not paying me to say this. I know what it looks like, but I swear we don't know them, they don't know us, and we ordered a package on Amazon just like everybody else, as part of our best toilet paper testing for BuzzFeed Reviews.

And in our testing, Seventh Generation 100% Recycled was far and away the softest recycled toilet paper, when compared to the other recycled and bamboo options.

All the testing aside, I've personally been using it at home for a couple of months now and y'know what? It's great!

Natalie Brown / BuzzFeed

So yes, its thin and rough compared to the Quilted Northerns and Charmins of this world, especially when you're feeling them one next to the other. Don't get your hopes up THAT high. But if fluffy TP's a luxe silk robe, other recycled/tree-free options are stiff wool sweaters, and this is your typical cotton tee.

And as I said, it gets the job done well! I do occasionally end up using a few more squares than I would with some fluffy toilet papers, because it is a little less absorbent. Still, it's nowhere near enough extra to mean that this best recycled toilet paper isn't worth the environmental savings. (Yes, it's two-ply, and no, I never predicted that I'd be sharing such sincere, detailed thoughts about T.P. on the internet!)

It doesn't tear during use (unless it gets really wet, like when I grab a single square to wipe my stray hairs out of the just-used sink) or soak through to my fingers. I'm able to — TMI warning! — wipe a couple of times, fold the pile of squares in half, and wipe some more. It doesn't leave any linty residue behind, or drop a thin layer of dusty-white residue on my floor (issues I've had with those fluffy brands). The plastic film the rolls come wrapped in is recyclable at regular plastic bag drop-offs, and the cardboard box and rolls can go curbside, so I add nothing to the landfill. What more can I say about a recycled toilet paper that does what it's supposed to, and does it well? I have no complaints!

And I'm not the only one! Plenty of other people who have used this Seventh Generation toilet paper agree with me, and it has the four-star rating on Amazon to prove it.

amazon.com, Natalie Brown / BuzzFeed

Promising reviews: "Best toilet paper. I’m a toilet paper snob and started subscribing to the product (my husband tried to bring Scott’s into our house — never again). It’s durable, soft, and recycled." —megrat7

"Wipes well, saves trees. I like that Seven Generation is a B Corp company, read about B Corps if you don't know what they are. 48 rolls came at a good price and will last me a real long time." —Paul J Reilman

"Soft and cushiony, very absorbent. Added benefit that it's made from 100% recycled materials. I prefer the bamboo TP, but this one is much more cost effective." —Avid Reader

"Recycled paper as toilet paper? Absolutely! It works well, and it's not abrasive in any way. Enjoy!" —M. Ballantyne

So if you want to start doing little things to help trees, which helps our planet — make the switch to recycled. Get 48 rolls of Seventh Generation 100% Recycled toilet paper on Amazon for $27.18.

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It's also totally eligible for subscribe and save, so you're never caught stranded without any TP in the house! BTW, it's price translates to about $0.02/square foot. (Price/square foot is the only accurate way to compare toilet paper prices, since every manufacturer has different and multiple sizes of both sheets and rolls.)

You, on your way to order some super soft but good-for-the-Earth toilet paper:

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If you're looking for other ways to live sustainably, check out:

8 Practical Things You Can Do To Help Save The Bees

21 Inexpensive Products That Actually Replace A Bunch Of Disposable Plastic

18 Simple And Doable Ways To Create Less Food Waste

11 Natural Cleaning Products That Basically Have A Cult Following

Shopping for something specific? Check out BuzzFeed Reviews to find the best things for every budget!

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The reviews in this post have been edited for length and clarity.