Kimberly-Clark on a roll to eliminate toilet paper tubes

CC image by Urban Woodswalker. If the industry eliminated tubes from toilet paper rolls it could save millions of pounds of disposed cardboard annually.

Kimberly-Clark is getting some well-deserved kudos for taking a trial run at eliminating the cardboard tubes in its toilet paper tubes. The move could save millions of pounds of disposed cardboard a year. But is it fair to call it "natural"?

Kimberly-Clark plans to help save the environment by introducing tubeless toilet paper rolls, therefore reducing landfill use by eliminating billions of paper tubes from being tossed out each year.

One of the world’s largest makers of paper products for home use, Kimberly-Clark will be testing sales of "Scott Naturals Tube-Free" bathroom tissue at Walmart and Sam’s Clubs throughout the Northeast beginning Monday.

A spokesman for the company said if the test run of the first major change in the manufacture of bath tissue in 100 years is successful, they may introduce the product nationally, with the possibility of going global. The company is also considering adapting the new tubeless technology to be used in the manufacture of its paper towel brands. It’s not perfect. The centers of the rolls are not 100 percent round, but they do fit standard toilet paper holders, and no paper is lost due to being stuck to the tube with glue.

Doug Daniels, brand manager at Kimberly-Clark said, “Most consumers toss, rather than recycle, used tubes. We found a way to bring innovation to a category as mature as bath tissue."

Seventeen billion toilet paper tubes are tossed out each year in the United States. That equals 160 million pounds of trash. Stacked end-to-end they could stretch more than a million miles, which would cover a distance from here to the moon and back ... twice. Daniels said consumer demand for more eco-friendly products spurred Kimberly-Clark to come up with the idea of tubeless rolls. He refused to reveal the new technology, but said it’s a process similar to how products are made for commercial use.

In a radio man-in-the street interview on KABC in Los Angeles asking people what they thought of the idea, the only complaint came from a Brownie troop leader, who wondered what the girls are going to use for craft projects if all the paper tubes disappear.

Toilet paper is a $9 billion business in the U.S.

Andrew Michler points out on inhabitant, that calling the tubeless TP "Naturals" is a bit of a green tease.

"Although the company promises to use recycled paper content in the future for the tubeless TP they are verging on greenwash by labeling this as part of their Scott Naturals line, in which other products use 40% recycled paper." Read more: Is New Tubeless Toilet Paper Just a Green Tease? | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World