People are going beyond nutritional labels and becoming far more aware of what goes into everyday products including toilet tissue. Product labelling is not standard for non-food products like toilet paper and to know what we may or may not be exposed to largely lies on us—the consumer to determine. 

The softening agents used in toilet paper generally fall into three categories: chemical additives used during manufacturing, surface additives and mechanical processes that physically change the paper's texture. A question we’ve recently been asked is whether EcoRoll uses any softening agents or additives to create its soft feel.

The short answer is: no.

EcoRoll does not use added softening chemicals, lotions, wet-strength additives, or animal-derived ingredients in production. Instead, our softness comes from the naturally soft bamboo fibre itself and the mechanical creping and embossing techniques used during converting. But it raises a good question: What chemicals soften toilet paper?

The three ways toilet paper is made softer

The manufacture of toilet and facial paper has three broad areas of variables associated with it. These variables include fibre selection, manufacturing technology, and the additive used or applied to the sheet. In the tissue industry, softness is generally created in three ways.

1) Chemical softening agents

Some manufacturers add chemicals during pulping or papermaking to reduce rigid fibre bonding and make the sheet feel more pliable.

These can include:

• quaternary ammonium compounds (quats)

• polyhydroxy compounds such as glycerol or glycols

• silicone emulsions

• modified hydrocarbon oils

• synthetic wet-strength or cross-linking resins

These additives are designed to improve softness, bulk or flexibility.

2) Surface lotions and topical additives

Some premium tissues go a step further by applying surface lotions to reduce friction against the skin.

These may include:

• aloe vera

• vitamin E

• plant extracts

• silicone-based coatings

• mineral oil-based moisturising lotions

This is often where “ultra-soft” brand positioning comes from.

Image source: https://worldpapermill.com/blog/tissue-paper-manufacturing-process.

3) Mechanical softening through creping

Perhaps the most vital step in tissue manufacturing — the step that separates tissue from every other paper grade on the planet is the Yankee drying and creping. 

An enormous steel drum called a Yankee dryer is pressurised with steam and a hood above  blows air at up to 550°C onto the wet sheet surface.

As the cylinder turns, heat evaporates the moisture from the paper. Once it is dry, it can be wound off the cylinder onto a spool, allowing for continuous, controlled drying. 

As the paper pulp dries, it is carefully lifted from the dryer using a blade — the Doctor Blade, creating thousands of tiny micro-folds that decrease the paper's stiffness and increase stretch, directly correlating to higher perceived softness. 

This gives the tissue:

• softness

• fluffiness

• bulk

• flexibility

• comfort

This is the approach EcoRoll uses.

The dried, creped sheet is wound onto a parent roll, then sent to the converting line where the paper is embossed, ply bonded and perforated. Paper is then wound onto a cardboard core cut into — usually 10 mm sections and wrapped.

How EcoRoll creates softness naturally

At EcoRoll, we rely on:

• naturally softer bamboo fibres

• carefully controlled creping

• embossing depth and texture design

Research also indicates that bamboo's high length-to-width ratio provides superior smoothness and softness in tissue products compared to soft and hard wood fibres. 

Fibre length also matters. Bamboo fibres are longer than hardwood fibres. This allows bamboo to offer a rare combination of high tensile strength (durability) and softness. In traditional toilet tissue manufacturing, often there is a trade off between strength (from softwood) and softness (from hardwood) — or often combining hard and softwoods but bamboo provides both.

Why softness is personal

Softness evaluation is labeled as an art rather than a science because it has not been distinctly defined. Described  as a “psychological phenomena which involves many different components that may interact with each other,” this article — “Softness of tissue & towel,” BioResources 17(2), 3509-3550, presents other ideas that together influence the perception of softness, including but not limited to “crepe count [number of crepes per centimetre], crepe-to-stretch ratio, sheet density, strength, stiffness, and creping geometry”. 

For toilet paper, softness also often influences price. But still, softness is a subjective perception related to physical aspects that make it challenging to express and measure. And that is why product reviews will vary.

And where perceived high levels of softness are achieved, at what cost. What additives were required beyond the mechanical process?

As a product we interact with daily, if you’re ever unsure, it’s always worth simply asking the question.