We clean up after ourselves
Follow us on a little probe into Uranus Wiper and the journey our toilet paper embarks on before it arrives in your home – a journey rooted in our commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality. The journey starts with a choice – the choice to manufacture our bamboo toilet paper right here in Europe, a decision that's all about carbon efficiency.
100% renewable energy toilet roll manufacturing
Making toilet paper is complex, but we've taken steps to ensure our production's carbon footprint is as small as a puppy's nose print. Our manufacturing uses a variety of sustainable energy sources to achieve this.
Firstly, our biomass power plant produces steam as a by product. Instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, we use this steam to efficiently dry our newly made toilet paper. This approach maximizes utility and minimizes waste. Unlike power plants relying on fossil fuels, our biomass power plant operates entirely on renewable organic biomass derived from forest debris, which helps reduce forest fire risks and waste.
Water is vital in toilet roll production. Our manufacturing treatment plant ensures the water we use is returned to the river in the same pristine condition in which we found it. This plant not only maintains water quality but also converts treatment residues into electricity, benefiting both us and the environment.
Last but not least, the manufacturing factory solar plant, equipped with numerous solar panels, harnesses the power of the sun to fuel the production of your beloved toilet paper in a sustainable way.
Our manufacturing process is ISO 14067 certified. This carbon footprint certification is regularly audited to ensure adherence with ISO 14067.
ISO 14067 specifies the rules and guidelines for measuring and reporting a product's carbon footprint, which is how much carbon dioxide it emits during its lifecycle. Essentially, it helps in tackling climate change, supporting the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 13.
Carbon neutral delivery: Powered by removing carbon from atmosphere
Committed to our big hairy audacious goal of Keeping Earth Clean, we've achieved much, from saving trees and using recycled, plastic-free packaging to carbon-neutral production. Yet, deliveries to you create carbon emissions. We take care of this through our partnership with Shopify Planet. The partnership ensures that every bit of carbon generated during the delivery process is neutralised by pulling carbon out of Earth's atmosphere.
Here's how we do it: For each delivery, we calculate shipping emissions and donate a part of our revenue to reputable carbon removal companies to neutralize our carbon footprint. 👏 👏
Let's meet a few of the companies that help us remove carbon from Earth's atmosphere.
Heirloom
Heirloom is rewriting the carbon capture playbook, and guess what their secret weapon is? Good old limestone! Here's the lowdown:
Limestone naturally sucks up carbon. Heirloom's turbocharged process, makes limestone soak up carbon much quicker.
They heat up the limestone to make it burp out carbon and then find smart long-lasting materials like concrete to stash the carbon permanently.
They heat up the limestone to make it burp out carbon and then find smart long-lasting materials like concrete to stash the carbon permanently.
Just like your favorite Spotify playlist, they keep looping the limestone to keep grabbing carbon. This not only helps the planet but also saves the trouble of mining more limestone.
In a nutshell, Heirloom's limestone magic makes an ordinary rock an eco-friendly superstar.
In a nutshell, Heirloom's limestone magic makes an ordinary rock an eco-friendly superstar.
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Remora
Remora's innovation is all about capturing carbon emissions from trucks. They use a device that acts like a giant filter, pulling greenhouse gases from the truck's exhaust. This carbon is compressed, stored onboard the truck, and the device cleverly uses the truck's heat to refresh the filter. When the tanks are full, Remora collect the carbon with a special truck and deliver it to places like concrete producers, who stash it away. Finally, Remora's carbon is taken to secure underground spots where it's stored forever.
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Charm
Charm is all about turning nature's leftovers into a solution for carbon emissions. Here's their method:
Charm collects plant waste, leveraging the natural carbon-capturing abilities of cellulosic biomass. Through a process called fast pyrolysis, which transforms this waste into carbon-rich bio-oil. Charm safely inject this bio-oil deep underground, keeping it away permanently from wildfires and erosion for millennia.
Charm's ultimate goal? To reverse the carbon trend by putting it back underground where it can't cause harm.
Charm collects plant waste, leveraging the natural carbon-capturing abilities of cellulosic biomass. Through a process called fast pyrolysis, which transforms this waste into carbon-rich bio-oil. Charm safely inject this bio-oil deep underground, keeping it away permanently from wildfires and erosion for millennia.
Charm's ultimate goal? To reverse the carbon trend by putting it back underground where it can't cause harm.
Video preview unavailable in editor.
Questions you may have about carbon removal
None of them answer why you can't hire a Rug Doctor from B&Q to wash your carbon emissions
Bamboo: Our hero raw material
Many brands produce bamboo rolls in China, but we make ours in Europe for a greener reason.
Consider this: a 40ft container of bamboo pulp, the magic ingredient for our rolls, holds an impressive 24 tons of toilet roll potential, like packing an entire orchestra of eco-goodness into one container. A 40ft container carrying pre-made toilet paper holds around 5 tons, equivalent to 50,000 rolls. In contrast, a 40ft container of bamboo pulp, the vital component of our rolls, contains a whopping 24 tons, equivalent to 240,000 rolls.
We import bamboo pulp from China (mainly because Accrington or Merseyside aren't exactly renowned for bamboo farms) to our factory in Europe, where we craft our rolls.
Producing in Europe reduces container shipments drastically. If made in China, we'd need five times more containers to deliver the same amount of toilet paper to you. Why? Because unlike bamboo pulp, transporting finished rolls is like relocating an entire village. This calculation results in significant carbon savings, ensuring your bathroom remains stocked with guilt-free softness.
2 Ply: Calculated energy usage
We did the math and switched from 4-ply to 2-ply to make our production process completely free of fossil fuels.
To explain further, Uranus Wiper's technicians, humorously known as 'arse-boffins,' craft our toilet paper by creating a paste made of 94% water and 6% bamboo fiber. This paste is then propelled through a sonic blunderbuss onto a cloth at the speed of sound, forming the paper sheet. Each sheet is flash-dried in just 1.4 seconds, removing almost all the water.
This process, however, is energy-intensive, especially because each ply must be dried separately. Drying 3 or 4 plies consumes significantly more energy than drying just 2 plies. Therefore, producing 3 or 4-ply paper makes it impossible to source all our energy from renewable sources.
Committed to using only renewable energy, we've reduced our energy requirements by producing our toilet paper as 2-ply, while still maintaining the premium feel you love.
To ensure Uranus Wiper retains its usual luxurious feel and thickness, we've carefully designed our two-ply paper to have the same weight.