Don’t flush trees down the toilet. Use this toilet paper instead. - The Washington Post

If you walk down the toilet paper aisle in your grocery store, you’ll probably see a selection of rolls emblazoned with planet-friendly claims, from pledges to save hundreds of thousands of trees to promises of chemical-free products.

You can now find toilet paper made of recycled paper, bamboo or other alternatives to virgin wood fiber, some of which can come from cutting down old trees in critical forests. Estimates suggest that logging these forests for products, including toilet paper, can release up to 26 million metric tons of carbon each year, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group.

“This is just an incredibly important ecosystem that’s literally being flushed down the toilet,” said Shelley Vinyard, who oversees the Natural Resources Defense Council’s corporate campaign to protect Canada’s boreal forest.

The NRDC ranks dozens of toilet paper brands’ level of sustainability each year. We tested some of the top scorers on softness, strength and absorbency and found they varied widely. (See our methodology below.)

Which one was softest?

Winner: Simple Truth (Kroger)

Our winner is made of out of 100 percent recycled paper with up to 60 percent post-consumer recycled content, or materials that would normally be recycled or wind up in a landfill.

Our testers gave Simple Truth an average score of 5.5 out of 10.

How does that fare against traditional toilet paper rolls? Not as good. Our testers gave Charmin, one of the United States’ top selling brands, an average score of 9.8.

But depending on how and where they’re sourced from, in many cases the softest toilet paper can be among the least sustainable, according to some experts. They’re usually made with virgin forest fiber, such as northern bleached softwood kraft fiber and Brazilian eucalyptus. Those fibers’ thin walls make them more flexible and give the tissue softness. While Brazilian eucalyptus is a fast-growing tree and generally considered to be a more sustainable source of virgin fiber, soft toilet paper typically also includes fiber from older trees that store large amounts of carbon.

All of the toilet paper products that got an F in sustainability from the NRDC were made of mostly, if not entirely, forest fiber. Toilet paper made with 100 percent recycled content received high grades from the group. Simple Truth, for instance, got an A.

“Making sure post-consumer waste is recycled and reused as many times as possible is imperative to decrease the demand for natural resources and prevent pollution of water, air and waste going to landfills,” said Linda Walker, senior director for corporate engagement for forests at World Wildlife Fund.

Which one was strongest?

Winner: Reel Paper (100 percent bamboo)

A wet sheet of three-ply Reel toilet paper was able to hold an average of about eight quarters — two more than Whole Foods’ 365 toilet paper (two-ply), which came in second.

Like virgin hardwoods, bamboo tends to have long fibers, which bond more easily to create a stronger sheet, said Richard Venditti, a professor of paper science and engineering at North Carolina State University.

But bamboo can be less environmentally friendly than U.S. recycled paper. Much bamboo is sourced from China, which is still fueled heavily by coal, Venditti said. “A lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s bamboo. We didn’t have to cut down a tree,’ and so it’s good environmentally, but that’s not the whole story,” he said.

Our strength test winner received a B grade from the NRDC, lower than many toilet paper rolls made from recycled material. Still, some experts said a bamboo-based product — provided that it is mostly, if not all, made from responsibly sourced bamboo — can be a better alternative to virgin fiber from mature or old trees.

While not as low-impact as post-consumer recycled products or alternative fibers from agricultural residue, such as hemp, jute, and rice and wheat straw, bamboo — a type of grass — grows much more quickly than most trees.

Which one was more absorbent?

Winner: Whole Foods and Everspring (tie)

Whole Foods and Everspring, both made of 100 percent recycled content, tied in this test. The 0.5 milliliters of liquid dropped onto the toilet paper passed through an average of about eight sheets for both brands.

Recycled fibers are typically stiffer and contain larger amounts of small fibers, producing paper that is less soft and absorbent than one made from virgin fiber, said Burak Aksoy, associate research professor in the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment at Auburn University. But the performance of recycled toilet paper, including its absorbency, can be improved by advanced drying methods, layering and embossing, Aksoy added.

The NRDC gave our front-runners an A+ (Whole Foods) and an A (Everspring). The group said it gave higher grades to products with larger amounts of post-consumer recycled content. Other recycled toilet paper can contain manufacturing waste that doesn’t make it to a store shelf.

The champion

Reel, the bamboo-based toilet paper, emerged victorious. It scored highest on strength and most of our testers gave it middle-of-the-road softness marks. Though, as we mentioned above, it doesn’t rank as high as some of our other papers on sustainability, per the NRDC’s scorecard.

If you choose bamboo-based toilet paper, experts say to make sure your products are Forest Stewardship Council, or FSC, certified.

Regardless of what toilet paper you choose, there will likely be sustainability trade-offs. For example, with the exception of Reel, which is packaged in recyclable paper and comes in a cardboard box, all the other brands we tested were wrapped in plastic. What’s more, producing some types of toilet paper can release fewer carbon emissions, but could hurt the environment in other ways, such as if the fertilizer that’s used to grow crops ends up polluting nearby waterways.

Of course, there are other things to consider when choosing toilet paper, like cost. Our winner was not the cheapest, at $27.99 for 12 “mega” rolls (or about $2.30 per roll), according to Reel’s website. The bamboo toilet paper can be purchased for less at some stores, such as Target. The lowest price was Trader Joe’s at about 40 cents per roll (or $4.99 for 12 rolls).

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