Morcon Tissue Celebrates National Toilet Paper Day!
There really is a national holiday for everything these days. Each year in the United States, National Toilet Paper Day takes place on August 26th– this was the first day in history toilet paper was sold on a roll, way back in 1871! Even though none of us get the day off work to celebrate, it is still a nice reminder of just how essential the bathroom product is to our lives and overall health.
To honor this day, we’ve compiled some fun fact about toilet paper. Read below to learn more about a product we all take for granted!
Prior to toilet tissue, a number of different solutions were used:
- Ancient Greeks used stones and clay
- Ancient Romans used sponges on the ends of sticks
- Colonial Americans used corncobs and eventually newspapers (much softer!)
Additional facts:
- Toilet paper was first used in 6thcentury China when a Chinese emperor declared that paper sheets must be made for his time on the toilet.
- Even though Queen Elizabeth’s I’s godson invested one of the first flushing toilets in 1596 – commercial toilet tissue was still unavailable.
- Did you know packaged toilet paper wasn’t even commercially sold in the U.S until 1857? The inventor, Joseph C. Gayetty produced the product and had his name printed on every single sheet.
- The Scott Brothers popularized rolls of toilet paper in the late 1890s but the public still considered it taboo.
- It wasn’t until 1935 that the company Northern Tissue advertised the first “splinter free” toilet paper – imagine having to worry about that every time you wiped!
- In December 1973, Johnny Carson made a joke during his opening monologue of The Tonight Show about a toilet paper shortage. Though not the first to comment on the situation, Carson was blamed for causing a nationwide toilet paper shopping spree!
- Colored toilet paper was available in the US until the early 2000s – though still available in Europe!
- The average person in the United States uses 100 rolls of toilet paper per year and the average household flushes about 80,000 sheets annually.
- The roll debate of over /under. About two-thirds of Americans prefer their toilet paper to come off the roll over the top.
- Toilet paper is created with very short fibers that allow it to begin disintegrating within moments of becoming wet. This allows it to dissolve in septic system.
- Still today, 70-75% of the world’s population doesn’t use toilet paper due to the high cost or lack of plumbing.
If you need to stock up on toilet paper products, check out our extensive line of speciality and porta-potty tissues. Our bathroom solutions are suitable for everything from commercial buildings to portable restrooms and restaurants. And while you’re thinking about the washroom, why not check out some of our other paper product offerings? Our propriety systems control consumption and help reduce costs.
