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In today’s episode of tilting at windmills I’m going to complain about Costco‘s changes to their Kirkland-branded bath tissue / toilet paper / bog roll. I’ve been buying this toilet paper ever since first getting a Costco membership in 2001. It is a nice, basic, soft two-ply which is reasonably priced and which feels nice on my behind.
Unfortunately, when I went to purchase a new pack a few weeks ago (it comes in such quantities that I only have to buy some a couple times a year), I found that each individual roll is now wrapped in plastic. Additionally, the texture of the paper itself seems to have changed. The surface area of each roll is still listed as the same (53.1 sq ft / 49.2 m²), but the new roll seems to have a different texture and feel softer. A non-representative sampling of one roll each (the two above, unwrapped) showed that the new roll has a mass of 171g compared to the old roll’s 161g.
The texture of the paper is not a concern as it’s still sufficiently (and comfortably) capable of removing filth from my nether regions and capturing my nose blowings, but I really don’t like the move towards plastic packaging. While the large pack of rolls has been wrapped in plastic for as long as I’ve been purchasing it, the previous paper wrapping seemed considerably more environmentally conscious.
Personally, I would like it if both the outer and per-roll wrapper were made from non-plasticized paper, with the inner core (the tube) degradable and thus flushable. Or, maybe the core could simply be removed†. It would be nice if the outer wrappings were also degradable, but simply making them from a compostable material is would be sufficient.
† I have seen, and used, tubeless toilet paper dispensers in public restrooms, but they use a dual-peg system to holding the paper instead of a through-axel like design. In these the paper is wound from the center all the way out, with a very tight winding in the center which is indented on the sides for the pegs. This would make these new rolls incompatible with the defacto world wide standard holder.