Comment by rmason | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rmason | Hacker News Reader

This crisis has had an energizing effect not only on thousand year old mills but startups as well.

So there's a Michigan startup that makes... bamboo toilet paper. I don't know what kind of demand there is for bamboo toilet paper. A week after toilet paper became unavailable at any price they got a story written about them. They were having a warehouse sale where you could pick it up at the plant.

https://heybippy.com/

The next day the paper had a picture of a woman in a brand new Mercedes full to the brim. She couldn't see out of the back window, the passenger seat was full and she had some on her lap! Now apparently they're selling it as fast as they can make it as long as their bamboo supply holds.

I know someone whom I believe is an investor and I will check in with them later this summer. I am curious once the shortage is over and the supermarkets are stacked to the ceiling with Charmin will they still have a business?

Will people develop a fondness for bamboo toilet paper? If they do that founder will have the pandemic to thank.

TP is a bit unexpected. The local store got bamboo paper towels which supposedly can be washed and reused multiple times. That advantage would still be there even after pandemic. Probably they can always pivot from TP to towels.

Wrt. the original article - cool, the [cold] stone grounded flour is better then the industrial fast (and importantly - hot) crush which thus affects the floor's carbohydrates state (and resulting yeast action, etc.).

You're supposed to wipe your butt with these and then wash the dirty cloth? Why on Earth would I do that? Am I supposed to be saving money with this or something?

Paper towels aren’t for your butt. They’re for wiping up things in the kitchen, your floor, dust, etc.

Oh paper towels! Not toilet paper. Oops, my mistake! I guess I had that on my mind. Yeah, I've actually owned some of those wash and use paper towels. They're pretty decent.

Mistake... or new startup idea! Re-usable bamboo toilet paper.

Cloth diapers are a thing, too.

That doesn't immediately sound good. E.g., baby wipes thrown in the toilet will clog the sewage pumps and break them. If bamboo toilet paper works the same way, you'll have a big issue!

I wonder what these bamboo paper products are actually made of. Because bamboo fabric is actually rayon and may not be great for the environment. A better comparison would be with normal washable cloths.

Bamboo fabrics can be made that are not rayon, but they are significantly more time and energy consuming and thus far more expensive.

Marketing rayon as bamboo in the US is a labeling violation enforced by the FTC.

I don't recall the brand, but bamboo toilet paper was the last to disappear from the shelves last month.

I had to search out one of these TP startups in order to find any. My house is in full isolation mode: not trips to supermarkets, we piece together our grocery shopping from multiple online options since most are out of stock on at least 1/3 of our orders, and shopping online like this we can never get any toilet paper. None at all.

So about 4 weeks ago I orders from gono2. They aren't taking more subscriptions, but will allow one-off pre-orders for when they have stock. I have an order coming in about 2 weeks, and we hopefully have just enough to make it til then. If not, we have baby wipes for our young'un in diapers that will see us through.

why are you in full isolation?

High risk, and live in proximity to large outbreaks.

My backup plan for TP is to turn to old towels and rags. In the Middle Ages the rich used scraps of linen, so that’s the plan. Just don’t flush.

Why not a bidet? I'm surprised more people dont nuke TP completrly.

If I had a different house I would. The bidet needs power in vicinity of the toilet. There is no good outlet near the toilet. Don’t want an electrician in the house for the time being.

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