As households continue to stock up on toilet paper -- emptying shelves across the country -- a new website is attempting to answer the question: How much TP do we really need?
Howmuchtoiletpaper.com is a website created by student software developer Ben Sassoon and artist Sam Harris, both based in London, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The tool calculates just how long your stash of TP will last you during a quarantine.
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The idea came to them naturally, while talking about how much toilet paper they used, and how that would change during the pandemic.
Thus, the website was born.
The layout is simple. Users enter how many rolls of toilet paper they have and how many times they visit the loo.
If you scroll to the "Advanced Options" section, you can really get detailed, customizing the average number of wipes per trip, the number of sheets per wipe, sheets on the roll, and people in the house.
More than 2 million people have used the tool, the website says, and the average user has a whopping 500% more toilet paper than they need for quarantine.
The whole point of the tool is to reduce the toilet paper shortage around the world, which has begun as folks panic-buy rolls out of fear of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
"Not everyone is able to get to a store and stock up on toilet roll. Don't be selfish," the website says bluntly.
Demand for toilet paper has jumped
The sudden high demand of toilet paper has resulted in the industry working hard to meet the raised need, said the American Forest & Paper Association, an industry group representing paper product makers.
Last week, some orders from retailers nearly doubled, said Georgia Pacific, which makes Angel Soft and Quilted Northern toilet paper. The company shipped 20% more than its normal capacity.
Meanwhile, retailers in the US and Canada have begun limiting the number of toilet paper packs customers can buy in a single trip.