The Good Roll
Country
NetherlandsCollection
Home decoration & Zero waste essentialsPrice range
< € 25Type
The Good Roll was born out of a common frustration. There are 2.3 billion people worldwide who do not have access to safe and clean toilets, one-third (!) of the world's population. In addition, 27,000 trees are cut down every day for the production of toilet paper. Shocking figures, in other words. So shocking that they inspired Sander de Klerk, Melle Schellekens and Faisal Ahmed, founding fathers of the brand, to develop The Good Roll; an initiative with which they want to tackle both problems. A unique Dutch win-win concept: a 100% tree-friendly toilet roll, made from European recycled paper, that gives as many people as possible access to safe and clean toilets.
The brand offers toilet and kitchen paper, tissues, cream spray and a spray alternative to wet wipes. After the above shocking statistics, we at COSH! were very curious about how The Good Roll is trying to address the issues. You too? Then read on quickly.
The Good Roll is a Dutch company. Besides selling a truly sustainable product, the brand wants to make a direct social contribution. Preferably as locally as possible. Therefore, they work with two social workshops for wrapping and packaging the products. In this way they offer work and guidance to more than 75 people! People who work at a social enterprise have a distance to the labour market. This can have various causes, such as physical complaints or just bad luck or problems along the way. These people are offered guidance or workplace adjustments. Whatever the reason, The Good Roll believes that everyone can add value to the company if they are willing and able to work.
The team consists of 'regular' employees in addition to people with a distance to the labour market. For the employees with a distance to the labour market, it is nice to work in as 'normal' a workplace as possible, so that the work goes well and smoothly and they get into a normal daily rhythm. On the other hand, as a commercial company, The Good Roll naturally has to ensure that they deliver a certain quality. By having a mix of employees, they ensure that the goals are achieved as well as that everyone has a good time.
The Good Roll has built a factory in Ghana, and here they have been manufacturing toilet paper from bamboo together with the local population since 2023. In this way they are making an enormous impact on employment and prosperity in Ghana.
When you buy toilet paper from The Good Roll, you support the brand's mission: safe and clean toilets for all. They invest 50% of The Good Roll's net profits in building safe toilets in Ghana. By building these toilets and spreading knowledge about hygiene, life-threatening diseases are prevented and children can go to school safely. This allows children to develop and break the vicious cycle of poverty.
In 2018, the company established Foundation The Good Roll. This foundation is there to use the money they raise from the sale of the toilet rolls as best they can to build sanitary facilities, without making a profit. Together with its partners, the foundation has now built several hundred toilets.
In addition to toilet construction through The Good Roll's own foundation, the brand supports the Simavi Foundation's "WASH and Learn" projects in Africa. From the moment they sold their first toilet paper, they started working with them and a local partner (HEWASA) in the Kabarole district in Uganda. Here they built safe toilets at St John's Nsongya Primary School.
Because of this positive impact on people and the planet, The Good Roll Foundation recently received ANBI status 8588 94 178. This certificate is awarded to non-profit corporations that focus at least 90% of their efforts on the common good.
Finally, The Good Roll is proud to be officially certified as a B corporation, with a relatively high score of 111! The B Corp certification signifies a company's commitment to making a positive social and environmental impact. It means that decisions are made with the best intentions at the level of employees, customers, suppliers, production, the community and the environment.
The Good Roll's toilet paper is made from 100% European recycled and bamboo paper, with no chlorine, dyes or fragrances. Normal toilet paper is made from freshly cut wood, while recycled toilet paper comes from 100% post-consumer waste paper such as books and used paper. Your Booty Buddy is a wet wipe alternative in spray form. This spray is 100% natural and completely biodegradable.
That The Good Roll's products are sustainable and tree friendly is also confirmed by the EU Ecolabel! This is the official European eco-label for non-food products and services.
The Good Roll's packaging is 100% plastic-free. The cream spray comes in a glass, reusable bottle. By using recycled paper for the toilet rolls, the brand has already saved 22403 trees by 2023! The cardboard box and wrappers are also made from 100% European recycled paper, but the webshop also offers a wrapless version of the toilet rolls. The ink on the wrappers is ECO ink, making it more environmentally friendly because it uses vegetable oil instead of synthetic oil. The inks do not contain mineral oils or substances derived from genetically modified organisms (with the exception of Soybean oil) and are free of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds). Did you know that common labels contain VOCs? These harmful chemicals can migrate right through thin packaging into products.
So all in all, The Good Roll seems to be packing as circularly as possible!
The Good Roll is made from 100% European recycled paper. The products are packaged in the Netherlands and the bamboo toilet paper is produced in the brand's own factory in Ghana. The latter unfortunately causes the chain to be longer than if the entire production took place in Europe.
In 2022, The Good Roll internally calculated its 2021 CO2 emissions. If you know your total emissions, you can offset these CO2 emissions. To this end, the brand has partnered with JustDiggit. This collaboration allows them to have an even greater positive impact on the African continent. Together they are greening over 270,000m2 of dry land and bringing back 1,000 trees. The revegetated land and trees will help save 424 tons of CO2, equivalent to the company's 2021 carbon emissions. In addition, to reduce its carbon emissions, the brand is partnering with Budbee, a climate-neutral package delivery company.
The Good Roll is a vegan and cruelty-free brand!
The Good Roll's sustainable toilet paper is super soft, super strong and as good for you as it is for your wallet! The wrappers with different prints make the toilet rolls really stand out. This is also exactly the brand's goal: to catch your attention. Because of the visibility and brand awareness this gives them, they become memorable and also bought more. This turns a somewhat boring everyday product into a celebration.
The Good Roll is a transparent brand! In its annual report, the brand details its sustainability and production. In it, they are also open about their goals for the coming years.
The Good Roll's mottos are: "wipe right, change lives" and "Let's make the world less shitty”. At COSH! we think the brand succeeds in this pretty well, with its recycled and bamboo toilet paper. BYE BYE forest harvesting! HELLO less water consumption and emissions including CO2. Trees are for hugging, not ending up as paper in your toilet. Agree? Then visit one of the outlets below.
Where to buy The Good Roll?
Lookbook
