Irish shoppers have noticed an increase in the price of their everyday household items over the past few months, and toilet roll is no exception.
Rising fuel costs due to the war in Ukraine as well as a drive for brands to be more sustainable are pushing up prices for customers at the till.
Adam Maguire, RTE Business journalist, explained on Today with Claire Byrne why Irish consumers may have noticed a jump in toilet roll prices over the past few weeks.
Read more: HSE official calls for calories on restaurant menus to tackle 'obesity epidemic'
He said: "It depends on the brand and everything else. Figures from NielsonIQ say that toilet paper prices are up 15.6% in the year to May which is way above the general increase in consumer goods.
"What could be muddling the water here is, as you know, toilet paper is often one of those things that is on a special offer in a supermarket.
"So you buy a big multiple pack and you get it at a relatively cheap price. Once prices start to go up on the cost of things for a retailer, they tend to stop putting it on special offer.
"So what happens then is that you may have to pay a full price and maybe now an inflated full price, so you're getting hit on the double essentially.
"It seems like much more dramatic increase than what is actually happening."
Mr Maguire explained that prices are going to continue to increase due to brands trying to be more sustainable.
"Companies that make toilet paper are facing the same issues as the rest of us; higher fuel costs, transport costs," he said.
"But there is a very specific reason for toilet paper prices going up. It has a positive angle but it also has a massive downside too because we have to pay more.
"Companies of all stripes across the board are trying to make their products more sustainable and a big part of that push is to reduce the amount of plastic or Styrofoam that you use in the product or packaging.
"That means that they're switching over to paper or cardboard instead. It's easier to recycle, it doesn't give out harmful chemicals like plastic or Styrofoam tends to do, and at the end of its life it can biodegrade."
He said the decrease in plastic use has caused brands to move towards pulp, the raw material that makes paper.
"We are also online shopping a lot more over the past few years due to the pandemic. That means we need more cardboard and packaging to put those products in to ship them around the country and the world," Mr Maguire said.
"All of that has pushed up the price of pulp, the raw material that paper and cardboard is made from.
"It's been rising steadily since 2017 but it's really jumped in the last few months.
"The big problem for consumers is, pulp is also used to make household products like toilet paper so it has essentially gotten swept up in this move to sustainability and online shopping."
Read more: HSE official calls for ban on convenience store meal deals
Read more: 4 simple ways to check if your eggs are rotten
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox
