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A roll of toilet paper
Toilet paper and toilet paper holder





Anal cleansing instruments known as chūgi from the Nara period (710 to 784) in Japan. The modern rolls in the background are for size comparison.

Although paper had been known as a wrapping and padding material in China since the 2nd century BC,[3] the first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century AD, in early medieval China.[2] In 589 AD the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote about the use of toilet paper:


During the later Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), an Arab traveller to China in the year 851 AD remarked:

...they [the Chinese] do not wash themselves with water when they have done their necessities; but they only wipe themselves with paper.[2]

During the early 14th century, it was recorded that in what is now Zhejiang province alone, ten million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets of toilet paper were manufactured annually.[2] During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD), it was recorded in 1393 that an annual supply of 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (two by three feet in size) was produced for the general use of the imperial court at the capital of Nanjing.[2] From the records of the Imperial Bureau of Supplies of that same year, it was also recorded that for the Hongwu Emperor's imperial family alone, there were 15,000 sheets of special soft-fabric toilet paper made, and each sheet of toilet paper was perfumed.[2]


A print by William Hogarth entitled A Just View of the British Stage from 1724 depicting Robert Wilks, Colley Cibber, and Barton Booth rehearsing a pantomime play with puppets enacting a prison break down a privy. The "play" is composed of nothing but toilet paper, and the scripts for Hamlet, inter al., are toilet paper.
A 1792 French Revolutionary caricature, depicting the French population using the Monarchist Brunswick Manifesto as toilet paper.


The rise of publishing by the eighteenth century led to the use of newspapers and cheap editions of popular books for cleansing. Lord Chesterfield, in a letter to his son in 1747, told of a man who purchased


In many parts of the world, especially where toilet paper or the necessary plumbing for disposal may be unavailable or unaffordable, toilet paper is not used. Also, in many parts of the world people consider using water a much cleaner and more sanitary practice than using paper.[6] Cleansing is then performed with other methods or materials, such as water, for example using a bidet, a lota, rags, sand, leaves (including seaweed), corn cobs, animal furs, sticks or hands; afterwards, hands are washed with water and possibly soap.

As a commodity

"Le Troubadour" (French)—1960s package of toilet paper

Joseph Gayetty is widely credited with being the inventor of modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States. Gayetty's paper, first introduced in 1857, was available as late as the 1920s. Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packages of flat sheets, watermarked with the inventor's name. Original advertisements for the product used the tagline "The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."

Seth Wheeler of Albany, New York, obtained the earliest United States patents for toilet paper and dispensers, the types of which eventually were in common use in that country, in 1883.[7]

The manufacturing of this product had a long period of refinement, considering that as late as the 1930s, a selling point of the Northern Tissue company was that their toilet paper was "splinter free".[8]

Moist toilet paper, called wet wipes, was first introduced in the United Kingdom by Andrex in the 1990s. It has been promoted as being a better method of cleaning than dry toilet paper after defecation, and may be useful for women during menstruation. It was promoted as a flushable product but it has been implicated in the creation of fatbergs; by 2016 some municipalities had begun education campaigns advising people not to flush used wet wipes.[9]

More than seven billion rolls of toilet paper are sold yearly in the U.S. Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per capita per year.[10]


Toilet paper is available in several types of paper, a variety of patterns, decorations, and textures, and it may be moistened or perfumed, although fragrances sometimes cause problems for users who are allergic to perfumes. The average measures of a modern roll of toilet paper is c. 10 cm (315/16 in.) wide, and 12 cm (423/32 in.) in diameter, and weighs about 227 grams (8 oz.).[11] An alternative method of packing the sheets uses interleaved sheets in boxes, or in bulk for use in dispensers. "Hard" single-ply paper has been used as well as soft multi-ply.


Manufactured toilet paper sheet in the United States was sized 41/2" × 41/2".[12] Since 1999 the size of a sheet has been shrinking; Kimberly-Clark reduced the length of a sheet to 4.1".[13] Scott, in 2006, reduced the length of their product to 3.7". The width of sheets was later reduced giving a general sheet size of 3.7" long and 4.1" wide. Larger sizes remain available.


Toilet paper products vary greatly in the distinguishing technical factors, such as size, weight, roughness, softness, chemical residues, "finger-breakthrough" resistance, water-absorption, etc. The larger companies have very detailed, scientific market surveys to determine which marketing sectors require or demand which of the many technical qualities. Modern toilet paper may have a light coating of aloe or lotion or wax worked into the paper to reduce roughness.

Quality is usually determined by the number of plies (stacked sheets), coarseness, and durability. Low grade institutional toilet paper is typically of the lowest grade of paper, has only one or two plies, is very coarse and sometimes contains small amounts of embedded unbleached/unpulped paper.[14] Mid-grade two ply is somewhat textured to provide some softness and is somewhat stronger. Premium toilet paper may have lotion and wax and has two to four plies of very finely pulped paper. If it is marketed as "luxury", it may be quilted or rippled (embossed), perfumed, colored or patterned, medicated (with anti-bacterial chemicals), or treated with aloe or other perfumes.

In order to advance decomposition of the paper in septic tanks or drainage, the paper used has shorter fibres than facial tissue or writing paper. The manufacturer tries to reach an optimal balance between rapid decomposition (which requires shorter fibres) and sturdiness (which requires longer fibres). Compaction of toilet paper in drain lines, such as in a clog, prevents fiber dispersion and largely halts the breakdown process.

A German quip says that the toilet paper of Nazi Germany was so rough and scratchy that it was almost unusable, so many people used old issues of the Völkischer Beobachter instead, because the paper was softer.[15]

Color and design

Colored toilet paper in colors such as pink, lavender, light blue, light green, purple, green, and light yellow (so that one could choose a color of toilet paper that matched or complemented the color of one's bathroom) was commonly sold in the United States from the 1960s. Up until 2004, Scott was one of the last remaining U.S. manufacturers to still produce toilet paper in beige, blue, and pink. However, the company has since cut production of colored paper altogether.[16]

Today, in the United States, plain unpatterned colored toilet paper has been mostly replaced by patterned toilet paper, normally white, with embossed decorative patterns or designs in various colors and different sizes depending on the brand. Colored toilet paper remains commonly available in some European countries.


Toilet paper is also used for spreading on seat before sitting


A toilet roll holder, also known as a toilet paper dispenser, is an item that holds a roll of toilet paper. There are at least seven types of holders:

  1. A horizontal piece of wire mounted on a hinge, hanging from a door or wall.
  2. A horizontal axle recessed in the wall.
  3. A vertical axle recessed in the wall
  4. A horizontal axle mounted on a freestanding frame.
  5. A freestanding vertical pole on a base.
  6. A wall mounted dispensing unit, usually containing more than one roll. This is used in the commercial / away-from-home marketplace.
  7. A wall mounted dispensing unit with tissue interfolded in a "S" type leave so the user can extract the tissue one sheet at a time.

Some commercial or institutional toilet paper is wrapped around a cylinder to many times the thickness of a standard toilet paper roll.


There are two choices of orientation when using a holder with a horizontal axle parallel to the wall: the toilet paper may hang over or under the roll. The choice is largely a matter of personal preference, dictated by habit. In surveys of American consumers and of bath and kitchen specialists, 60-70% of respondents prefer over.


Toilegami refers to toilet paper origami. Like table napkins, some fancy Japanese hotels fold the first squares of toilet paper on its dispenser to be presented in a fashionable way.[17]

Recreational use

In the United States, toilet paper has been the primary tool in a prank known as "TP-ing" (pronounced Teepeeing). TP-ing, or "toilet papering", is often favored by adolescents and is the act of throwing rolls of toilet paper over cars, trees, houses and gardens, causing the toilet paper to unfurl and cover the property, creating an inconvenient mess.[18]

Children and cats[19] have taken to unrolling an entire roll of toilet paper by spinning it until it completely unravels on the floor, or as a game by children wadding up one end, putting it in the toilet bowl without tearing it and then using the flushing of the toilet to pull new paper into the toilet, with the objective of flushing the entire roll down the toilet section at a time without the toilet paper breaking. Special toilet paper insert holders with an oblong shape were invented to prevent continuous unrolling without tearing to discourage this practice.

Toilet paper pranks include musical toilet paper holders and inserts that are activated by the unrolling of the toilet paper and will loudly play an embarrassing song calling attention to the person defecating.

Other gags include custom toilet paper printed with jokes, stories or politician's images.[20]


Alexander Balankin and coauthors have studied the behavior of toilet paper under tensile stress[21][22] and during wetting and burning.[23]

Toilet paper has been used in physics education to demonstrate the concepts of torque, moment of inertia, and angular momentum;[24][25][26] and the conservation of momentum and energy.[27]

Environmental considerations

One tree produces about 200 rolls (100 pounds (45 kg)) of toilet paper and about 83 million rolls are produced per day.[11] Global toilet paper production consumes 27,000 trees daily.[28]

More than seven billion rolls of toilet paper are sold yearly in the United States alone. Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per capita a year. The average American uses 50 pounds (23 kg) of tissue paper per year which is 50% more than the average of other Western countries or Japan.[29] The higher use in the United States may be explained by the fact that other countries people use bidets or spray hoses to clean themselves.[30] Millions of trees are harvested in North and South America leaving ecological footprint concerns.[31] Citizens of many Western countries sometimes use toilet paper for industrial purposes such as oil filters,[32] which may distort the use statistics.

As of 2009, between 22% and 48% of the toilet paper used in the United States comes from tree farms in the U.S. and South America, with the rest mostly coming from old, second growth forests, and, some from virgin forests.[10]


Toilet paper of many brands is now made from recycled paper. However, paper such as newspaper is recycled, despite it containing BPA, an endocrine disruptor. Many others sell toilet paper crafted out of bagasse, a byproduct of sugarcane.[33]

See also


  1. ^ "TOILET TISSUE". Cambridge English Dictionary. 23 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 123.
  3. ^ Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 122.
  4. ^ François Rabelais (20 April 2007). "Gargantua and Pantagruel". The University of Adelaide, Australia: eBooks@Adelaide. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  5. ^ Quoted in Maxted, Ian. "Sic transit gloria cloacarum". Website of The Ephemera Society. The Ephemera Society. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  6. ^ Sheri Trusty (21 February 2012). "Teen takes mission trip to India". Fremont, Ohio: Retrieved 5 March 2012. 'In most of India, they don't use toilet paper. They use water and their left hands,' Ollervides said. 'That's what the left hand is for.'[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ The first of note is for the idea of perforating commercial papers (25 July 1871, #117355), the application for which includes an illustration of a perforated roll of paper. On 13 February 1883 he was granted patent #272369, which presented a roll of perforated wrapping or toilet paper supported in the center with a tube. Wheeler also had patents for mounted brackets that held the rolls. See also Joseph Nathan Kane, "Famous First Facts: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries and Inventions in the United States" (H. W. Wilson: 1964), p. 434; Harper's Magazine, volume. Q, 1941-1943 (Harper's Magazine Co.:1941), p. 181; Jules Heller, "Paper Making" (Watson-Guptill:1978), p. 193.
  8. ^ O'Reilly, Terry (8 June 2017). "Now Splinter Free: How Marketing Broke Taboos". Under the Influence. CBC Radio One. Pirate Radio. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  9. ^ Kessler, Matt (14 October 2016). "Are Wet Wipes Wrecking the World's Sewers?". The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  10. ^ a b "Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests" by Leslie Kaufman, The New York Times, 25 February 2009, Retrieved 26 February 2009.
  11. ^ a b "Toilet paper fun facts".
  12. ^ "Is My Toilet Paper Shrinking?". Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  13. ^ "The Incredible Shrinking Toilet Paper Roll". Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  14. ^ "Minor British Institutions: Izal toilet paper". The Independent. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  15. ^ Read, Anthony and Fisher, David The Fall of Berlin London: Pimlico, 1993.
  16. ^ "The unpalatable truth: the colour has drained from our bathrooms?". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  17. ^ "Toilet Paper Origami". Origami Resource Center.
  18. ^ "Hey kids, TPing is not a crime!". tribunedigital-dailypilot. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  19. ^ FENWICK ELLIOTT, ANNABEL (4 April 2014). "Hilarious video shows cat unraveling entire roll of toilet paper – then dutifully re-rolling it back up again". Daily Mail. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  20. ^ Kaye, Ben (4 August 2017). "Donald Trump's shitty tweets printed on toilet paper". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  21. ^ Balankin, Susarrey Huerta & Bravo 2001.
  22. ^ Balankin et al. 2002.
  23. ^ Balankin & Matamoros 2002.
  24. ^ Harkay 2006.
  25. ^ Goodwin 1985.
  26. ^ Walker 1975.
  27. ^ Ehrlich 1997.
  28. ^ "Toilet paper wipes out 27,000 trees a day - National Geographic's Green Guide". 16 April 2010. Archived from the original on 19 February 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
  29. ^ "Soft Tissue Paper is Hard on the Environment". Simple Ecology. 22 August 2009.
  30. ^ "Euro-style Personal Hygiene With the Bidet". 27 February 2012.
  31. ^ Lindsey (26 February 2009). "Destroying forests to make toilet paper is "worse than driving Hummers"". Green Peace.
  32. ^ "Toilet paper Oil Filters". 1 January 1970. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
  33. ^


Further reading

External links