Toilet Paper Math: How Long, Wide, Tall & Lasts
How many of you can honestly say they know how many boxes of tissue make up a roll? What about the weight, length, width, or height of a roll? Well, not many.
The recycled world of tissue paper also known as toilet paper is widely versed. There are different types of categories including single, regular, double, and mega rolls, single ply, double, or triple-ply. There’s also the texture of the tissue from ultra-plush, extra strong, superior clean, quilted, premium, and much more.
When we get into the nitty-gritty of toilet paper, there’s so much to discuss, but for this article, we shall only look at the mathematical side of it. How do you determine how much tissue you need in a day, month, or year? What’s the standard measurement for tissue roll?
Let’s find out!
How Long is a Roll of Toilet Paper?
The length of a roll of tissue is 3.7 inches, equivalent to 0.3 feet. This is the standard size but some have a bit longer or shorter ones depending on the brand and type of tissue produced. Maxi sized tissue rolls will be much longer since they contain way more sheets than the standard 1000 in count.
How Wide is a Roll of Toilet Paper?
The average width of a roll of toilet paper is about 10 to 12 cm, equivalent to 3 and an eight-inch wide. Over the years, the size has fluctuated from four inches to 3.7 inches and now its 4.1 inches again with chances of reducing again.
The width of a roll has other embossing elements that equally affect other functions like the length of the roll paper. Some of these factors include;
- Number of sheets per roll
- Number of rolls in a pack
- The service length of the tissue paper
- Type of pallet and logistic unit
- Number of pack per bundle
- Core diameter
All these elements come into play during the manufacturing of the toilet roll which then could give off different measurements.
How Tall is a Roll of Toilet Paper?
The standard length of a roll of toilet paper is 90 to 100mm. Translating to 10 cm, four inches and zero feet tall. Other types of the roll could be taller almost resembling kitchen towels, or napkins.
How Much Does a Roll of Toilet Paper Weigh?
A roll of toilet paper weighs 227 grams (about 0.5 pounds) assuming a sheet is 4.5 by 4.5 inches. This can be standard weight, but custom made tissue with labels and branding can weigh differently.
Several characteristics of tissue roll affect the general weight of the paper. For example;
- The base paper – the sheet could be made with different qualities like virgin pulp, mixed, or de-inked pulp. White or different colored and textured tools will also have additional weight.
- The number of plies making the roll – from the introduction, you read that tissue roll can be made with 2, 3, 4, or more ply where the more the ply, the thicker the sheet.
- What type of ply bonding was used? Lamination, where the embossed ingredients are simply glued vs using a mechanical edge emboss, have different outcomes.
- Manufacturing company – lastly the type of toilet roll manufactured by different brands varies in many ways. Specialized brands for home care are not the ordinary roll of tissue therefore, it may have more weight, longer, wider and thicker.
How Long Should a Roll of Toilet Paper Last?
Now let’s get more mathematical and statistical. A roll of toilet paper contains 1000 sheets for a single ply and 500 for two-ply, and so on for further plies. The number is not 100% certain with companies using plus or minus sizing.
A consumer will use about eight to 20 sheets per toilet use to equivalent an average of 60 sheets per day. With that in mind you take:
The total amount of sheets per roll, assuming single ply, (1000) and divide by daily use (60)
1000 ÷ 60 = approximately 16 days = two weeks and 2 days
This formula assumes all other elements are stable, such and you go to the toilet three times a day, the same number of sheets per visit, and one-ply tissue paper.
What Will Determine the Duration?
There are various factors that can affect how long or how short the roll of tissue can last. Below are some of the common factors:
Ply
This refers to the layering on the tissue. For a single ply, it means only one sheet has been joined to form a roll.
Doubles and multiple plies indicate the plies have been bonded through lamination or other types of bondage to make it thicker.
For a single ply, one will end up using more sheets of tissue from the roll since one is too thin.
Users
The roll in your home will last differently for a solo individual and a family of four. This is because the more users there are, the more rolls you need.
As for the above calculation if you’re four in one household that means in a day, 240 sheets are used. Hence, the roll will only last four days.
Gender
How much tissue paper does a girl or lady need? What of a man? Several studies have shown that ladies use more tissue than men. Probably because they use more boxes or for various other purposes rather than simply using it in the washroom.
Activities involved
Tissue is among the most versatile home essential which means some will use the tissue in the washroom, others use it to blow their nose, wipe particular surfaces in the home, others could even pack to use in public toilets while away from home.
Quality
One can’t compare with quality. Hotels use up more money buying bathroom essentials than any other business. This is because the hotel will probably put quality tissues for their guests who end up using too much or even stealing to take home with them.
Price
The more expensive the roll of tissue is, the less likely you are to use haphazardly. If you spent a good amount of money buying quality tissue for your home, you may minimize usage to allow it to stay longer.
Size
There are different sizes of tissue rolls available from regular, large, mega, super mega, and maxi. You can buy the maxi and use it even 2 months non-stop.
For some, the size could encourage them to use more than required as they see it’s big enough.
There are numerous other factors that can affect how one spends their tissue affecting the duration it stays.