Toilet paperbut how much will it cost me? Rolls and very dear rolls. And, ironically, it almost seems that even using the bathroom became a luxury in Italy at the time.inflation to the stars. In three years, toilet paper has increased in price by 44% according to the Mimit website. Yet in all of this the Puglia has a small positive record.
The investigation
The Consumption Research Center (Crc) explains that a pack of 4 rolls cost on average 1.74 euros in Italy in 2021, while today, for the same pack, an average of 2.51 euros is spent, with an increase of exactly + 44.2%. But just take a trip to the supermarket to discover that the best-known brands now cost well above 4 euros. But who spends the most? Bolzano is the city where toilet paper costs the most, 3.40 for a pack of 4 rolls, followed by Grosseto (3.15 euros), Udine (3.06 euros) and Trento (3.03). – says Crc – On the other side of the ranking, Syracuse, with an average price of 1.77 euros, is the cheapest province in Italy, followed by Bari (1.81 euros) and Mantua (1.87 euros). If we analyze the trend of retail prices between 2021 and 2024, it emerges that the heaviest price increases are recorded in Grosseto and Ferrara, with a change in prices exceeding +89%, +85% in Bolzano, Udine and Livorno. The provinces where toilet paper increased the least in the three-year period are Messina (+14.5%), Bari (+15.3%) and Vercelli (+17.3%). «It is estimated that the toilet paper market in Italy is worth around 1.2 billion euros per year. – states the president of the Crc scientific committee, Furio Truzzi – Such an indispensable good that, as you will remember, during the pandemic it was one of the first to disappear from supermarket shelves.
Why does toilet paper cost so much?
There are several factors weighing on the price increases: first of all the crisis of raw materials, with the war in Ukraine which led to a collapse in imports of wood from Russia from which the cellulose essential for producing toilet paper is obtained, and the consequent rise in international short fiber prices, which rose by 68% in January compared to pre-price increases. Then there are the higher production costs determined by the high energy costs.” Then there is “shrinkflation”, that is, less product at the same price or even more expensive: “in recent years numerous brands have reduced the size of toilet paper rolls, inserting fewer sheets and therefore less quantity of product into the packages. – explains the president of Assoutenti Gabriele Melluso – A hidden inflation that adds to the increases recorded in shops and supermarkets. We wonder what happened to the investigation launched in 2022 by the Antitrust to monitor this phenomenon.” Finally, the environmental cost: “in Italy every year almost 3 million trees end up in the toilet”, states the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima). “If we unrolled and lined up all the toilet paper rolls consumed in Italy over the course of a year, we would be able to cover the distance between Earth and Mars, equal to approximately 228 million kilometres.” Alternatives? «for example, recycled toilet paper uses paper already produced previously and therefore allows us to avoid cutting down new trees, reducing water and energy consumption for its production. Then there is bamboo toilet paper, a plant that grows very quickly and does not require the use of fertilizers or pesticides. When choosing the product to purchase, it is important to verify the existence of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or Ecolabel certifications, which guarantee production from responsibly managed forests.”
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