The Best and Worst Toilet Paper, Paper Towel, and Facial Tissue Brands

U.S. consumers need only look north to see the effects of paper production on our environment. The world’s largest intact forest, the Canadian boreal, is being cut down at an alarming rate—more than 1 million acres per year—in part, to feed consumer demand for paper products. And much of that demand comes from the United States. In 2024, it accounted for 67 percent of all of Canada’s pulp and paper exports, which are then used by some of the biggest household brands for everything from paper towels to toilet paper.

The Canadian boreal’s trees, soils, and peatlands store massive amounts of carbon—gases that get released into the atmosphere when trees are cut down. A recent report by NRDC and our partners found that logging is the third-highest-emitting sector in Canada, behind only oil and gas production and the transportation sector.

In addition to robbing the planet of one of its most important defenses against climate change, widespread industrial logging destroys and degrades wildlife habitat. In the boreal, it also threatens the lands and ways of life of many Indigenous communities. 

Luckily, there are plenty of competitively priced varieties of tissue paper with minimal impact on forests. We’ve assigned grades to all the major U.S. brands of toilet paper, paper towels, and facial tissues. This includes house brands at leading supermarkets and brands that promote more sustainable practices, many of which were launched in only the past five years. Here’s what the highest scores mean for shoppers:

• A+ grade: These tissue paper products are made entirely of recycled material, use a chlorine-free bleaching process, and have the highest percentage of postconsumer recycled paper, which diverts waste from the landfill and promotes a more circular economy. (The alternative—pre-consumer recycled content—is largely scrap and excess raw material collected during the manufacturing process. While a step in the right direction, it does less to offset waste.) 

  Some of the highest-scoring toilet paper brands are 365 by Whole Foods Market 100% Recycled, Green Forest, Natural Value, and Trader Joe’s. Georgia-Pacific’s Aria toilet paper is a leading example of rapid market transformation: This brand made a historic leap last year, from an F to an A+, by ditching forest fiber for fully recycled content.

• A grade: Grades of A go to tissue brands that also contain 100 percent recycled content but a lower percentage of postconsumer recycled paper. Toilet paper brands in this category include Everspring by Target, Seventh Generation Extra Soft & Strong, Simple Truth by Kroger, and Who Gives a Crap 100% Recycled.
• B+ or B grade: Many of the brands that received a B+ or B are part of the growing market of bamboo-based tissue products. While bamboo is less environmentally friendly than recycled material and can be problematic if a bamboo plantation was established by clearing a natural forest, its use has generally been a positive step for the tissue paper sector. A fast-growing plant, bamboo has a much smaller land use and carbon footprint than Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft fiber, the form of wood pulp commonly used in tissue. Some toilet paper brands with this grade include: Amazon Aware, Caboo, PlantPaper, Reel Paper, and Who Gives a Crap Premium 100% Bamboo.

Of course, you also want to avoid the worst culprits. Here’s what a failing tissue paper grade means. 

• D and F grades: Most brands that get a D or F on our scorecard rely entirely (or almost entirely) on forest fiber for their products, and many use harmful bleaching processes. Data from the Environmental Paper Network shows that toilet paper made from forest fiber has nearly double the climate impact and uses significantly more water than toilet paper made from recycled content. 

  The gap is even wider for paper towels and facial tissue: Those made from forest fiber have more than two and a half times the climate impact and use about 90 percent more water than their recycled-content counterparts. Some of the most egregious examples are the flagship brands of the “Big Three” U.S. tissue producers—Georgia-Pacific, Kimberly-Clark, and Procter & Gamble. Their products include Angel Soft, Charmin, Cottonelle, and Quilted Northern. 

Aside from making better brand choices, you can also work to reduce your overall consumption of tissue paper products. Here are a few simple ways. 

• In the kitchen: Keep rags beside your sink to use instead of paper towels.
• Around the house: Replace paper napkins with cloth versions and one-and-done facial tissues with handkerchiefs and washcloths, which you can wash and reuse.
• In the bathroom: Consider buying a bidet or bidet toilet seat attachment, which are becoming more popular. These help cut down significantly on the use of toilet paper. 

And finally, you can help push for broader and more rigorous forest protections. Despite the steady degradation of forests like the boreal in Canada, leading tissue brands stubbornly maintain their unsustainable approach to tissue paper production. Bounty, Charmin, and other brands continue to be manufactured using methods that have changed little since the 20th century and still rely almost entirely on forest fiber. And most of the innovations the companies do pursue relate to marketing. 

Take, for example, the Charmin Forever Roll, which is sold in a roll so oversize, it requires its own holder stand, yet it’s made from the same unsustainable materials as the company’s standard rolls. Meanwhile, these companies perpetuate misleading claims that their products support healthy forests. It doesn’t have to be this way: These businesses have vast research and development budgets that they could leverage to create soft, strong, and sustainable tissue products. 

The good news is that as companies find themselves facing increasing scrutiny, they’re starting to acknowledge some of their responsibility to shift business as usual. For example, in addition to the decidedly unsustainable Forever Roll, Procter & Gamble also sells a line of Charmin Ultra Bamboo toilet paper. This Forest Stewardship Council–certified product line relies on rapidly renewable bamboo fiber and received a B grade on our scorecard (the first time one of its products broke out of the F category). And in 2024, Kimberly-Clark—owner of Kleenex, Cottonelle, and Scott—responded to consumer pressure by announcing its intention to eliminate natural forest fiber from its entire product line, meaning it would avoid sourcing from some of the most ecologically important parts of the boreal. It also set commitments to avoiding deforestation and reducing the impacts of natural forest degradation.

Mobilized by environmental groups like NRDC, consumer advocacy played a big part in Kimberly-Clark’s pledge to do better, and the call for broader changes is growing louder. You can help us move the needle further. Here’s how.

• Spread the word: Share the latest Issue with Tissue scorecard with friends and family. You can also call out failing brands publicly.
• Use your consumer power: Ask your local store’s manager to stock more sustainable options and use our scorecard as your guide.
• Speak up: Call on tissue companies directly to change their practices. Support stronger regulations that protect forests and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples.