Rolls and rolls more and more expensive. But also smaller and smaller, rather than 4 plies. It's a environmental cost very high: 3 million trees sacrificed.
Toilet paper, like all high consumption products, also runs into galloping inflation also driven in this case by the scarcity of raw materials due to geopolitical crises and by the high cost of energy for production and transport. So from consumer calculations on the data of Mimit it turns out that this primary good has undergone a double-digit increase in price in the last 3 years: on average +44%. The Consumer Research Center (Crc) explains that a pack of 4 rolls cost on average 1.74 euros in Italy in 2021, while today, for the same pack, an average of 2.51 euros are spent, with an increase of exactly +44.2%. But just take a trip to the supermarket to discover that the best-known brands now cost well above 4 euros.
Who spends the most?
But who spends the most? AND Bolzano the city where toilet paper costs the most, 3.40 for a pack of 4 rolls, followed by Grosseto (3.15 euros), Udine (3.06 euros) and Trento (3.03). – He says Crc – On the other side of the ranking, Syracuse, with an average price of 1.77 euros, is the cheapest province in Italy, followed by Bari (1.81 euros) and Mantua (1.87 euros).
Price list trend
If you analyze the trend of retail price lists between 2021 and 2024, it emerges that the heaviest price increases are recorded in Grosseto and Ferrara, with a change in prices exceeding +89%, +85% in Bolzano, Udine and Livorno. The provinces where toilet paper increased the least in the three-year period are Messina (+14.5%), Bari (+15.3%) and Vercelli (+17.3%). «It is estimated that the toilet paper market is worth around 1.2 billion euros per year in Italy. – states the president of the Crc scientific committee, Furio Truzzi – Such an indispensable good that, as you will remember, during the pandemic it was one of the first to disappear from supermarket shelves. There are several factors that weigh on the price increases: primarily the raw materials crisis, with the war in Ukraine which led to a collapse in imports of wood from Russia from which the cellulose essential for producing toilet paper is obtained, and the consequent rise in international prices of short fibre, which rose by 68% in January compared to pre-price levels. Then there are the major ones production costs determined by the cost of energy”.
Shrinkflation
Then there's the shrinkflation, i.e. less product at the same price or even more expensive: «in recent years numerous brands have reduced the size of toilet paper rolls, inserting fewer sheets and therefore less quantity of product into the packages. – explains the president of Members Gabriele Melluso – A hidden inflation that adds to the increases recorded in shops and supermarkets. We wonder what happened to the investigation launched in 2022 byAntitrust to monitor this phenomenon”.
Environmental cost
Finally the environmental cost: «in Italy every year almost 3 million trees end up in the toilet», states the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima). “If we unrolled and lined up all the toilet paper rolls consumed in Italy over the course of a year, we would be able to cover the distance between Earth and Mars, equal to approximately 228 million kilometres.”
Alternatives
Alternatives? «For example the recycled toilet paper it uses paper already produced previously and therefore allows us to avoid cutting down new trees, reducing water and energy consumption for its production. Then there is the bamboo toilet paper, a plant that grows very quickly and does not require the use of fertilizers or pesticides. When choosing the product to purchase, it is important to verify the existence of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certifications or Ecolabelwhich guarantee production from responsibly managed forests.”