How is bamboo toilet paper made?

How is a hard piece of bamboo transformed into soft and luxurious 3-ply toilet paper? Here is a simple breakdown of how bamboo toilet paper is made.

When people think of bamboo, they normally imagine hard sticks of grass which panda’s gnaw at all day long and nervously joke about the possibility of getting splinters in their bottoms with bamboo toilet paper! But the question still arises of how exactly the hard composition of a piece of bamboo is transformed into soft and luxurious 3-ply toilet paper. Here is a simple breakdown of how bamboo toilet paper is made:

1. The bamboo grows naturally

Bazoo’s 100% FSC-certified* bamboo (neosincalamus affinis species) grows naturally wild in the mountains in South-West China, and once matured are ready to harvest every year. Harvesting is usually done before sunrise when most of the starch is still in the roots. This means the bamboo is less attractive to insects, less heavy to transport and will dry faster. They are cut at ground level with a sharp knife.

2. The cut pieces of bamboo are sold to local cooperative farming groups

Our farming group collects the cut bamboo from a local supplier to then start their own transformation for the bamboo into toilet paper.

3. The bamboo is naturally fermented

Our particular farming group, leaves the pieces of bamboo to naturally ferment for 2 months - a process similar to your compost bins at home. This allows the bamboo to soften and breakdown for the next steps.

4. The bamboo is pulped and pressed

The fermented bamboo is then shredded and boiled; turning it into pulp before being pressed into large paper wheels of bamboo sheets.

5. The bamboo wheels are bound together

The bamboo paper wheels are then transported to various paper factories where the large 1-ply wheels are then loaded onto machines and, in Bazoo’s case three wheels are bound together to produce our 3-ply toilet paper. This makes them soft but strong.

6. The paper is wound around the recycled core rolls

After the three individual bamboo paper wheels have been bound together they are then tightly wound around our 100% recycled core rolls.

7. These long rolls are then cut into the smaller, appropriate sized Bazoo rolls

8. These rolls are packaged in our 100% plastic-free packaging

And they are ready to be used by our consumers!

So, these are the steps involved in making our Bazoo bamboo toilet paper. We are hoping to upload a video soon to show you about the process in more detail. In the meantime, enjoy treating your cheeks with nature’s finest!  

*100% FSC certified – (Forest Stewardship Council) - All the bamboo used in Bazoo’s products are sourced from forests that have been audited by an independent third party to confirm they are managed according to FSC’s rigorous social and environmental standards. FSC certified also ensures that the raw material product of bamboo has come from a responsibly managed forest which provides social and economic benefits; such as providing for the workers families’ livelihoods, promoting gender equality and human rights in the workplace, extensive work training, ensuring health and safety practises meet or exceed the International Labour Organisation Code of Practise on Safety & Health in Forestry Work, and ensure the wages for people working meet or exceed living wages. Bazoo has an audit with this third party every six months to ensure our chosen suppliers and  manufacturers are doing exactly this.