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Back in 1956 a well-known television commercial declared, "What's the gentlest tissue in the bathroom you can issue? Why, it's Sorbent." In 1988 the same jingle returned as part of the "All around Australia" campaign.

The infamous 1991 "Thank goodness for Sorbent" advertisements featured a young Matthew Krock, the pudgy kid of Hey Dad fame. Later campaigns focused heavily on product attributes, such as the 1997 "Pure, soft luxury", 2004 "Extra thick" and 2008 "Why rough it?" series.

And along the way, in a stroke of marketing genius, we watched that bevy of adorable Labrador puppies romp around in endless rolls of soft, luxurious toilet paper. That soft puppy coat is intrinsically linked to top-quality toilet paper.

A flushing enigma

On the road to sustainability it seems we've left our furry friends behind. According to consumer association Choice, only five percent of the toilet paper we flush away in Australia is made from recycled paper. The rest is virgin fibre from plantation or native-forest trees.

It's an interesting conundrum. We make use of council recycling programs and happily put our old newspapers and cardboard packaging into household recycling bins, but we continue to purchase toilet paper made from virgin materials. So if we give it out why can't we take it back?

Maybe we're suffering a collective hangover from the power of the aforementioned advertising campaigns. Rather than acting as a buyer incentive, labelling toilet paper as recycled may in fact act as a disincentive. Harking back to a time of left wing greenie ideals, many of us assume recycled toilet paper is rough and not at all tough.

The good news is the modern day stuff is on a roll (pardon the pun), with an increasing number of new products and brands appearing on supermarket shelves. It's soft, durable and, while it may not have pictures of teddy bears or smell like spring breeze, it's easy on the eye and nose.

Facts and figures

Paul Klymenko, research director of the Planet Ark Environmental Foundation, says recycled toilet paper is made from a range of post- or pre-consumer paper collected from offices, printers and other sources of good quality paper.

"A pulp is created from the paper via a cleaning process that shrinks the material and removes contaminants," he says. "Some manufacturers de-ink the pulp (remove the ink) which usually produces a softer, whiter recycled toilet paper. The pulp fibres are then put through a paper making process to produce the finished toilet paper.

"Standard toilet tissue manufacture uses a pulp made from virgin fibres that is already cleaned and bleached during its preparation."

Edmond Chan of local manufacturer ABC Tissue, who produce the Earthcare range of tissue products, says his company prefers to use high quality post-consumer used paper.

"We prefer to use recycled paper from offices. There is no real difference in the manufacturing process compared to traditional varieties of toilet paper other than the origin of the paper."

Recycled toilet paper reduces the need to cut down trees to create wood fibres and subsequently negates the environmental impact of cleaning and bleaching, Klymenko explains. It also significantly reduces the amount of water and chemicals used to create the product and helps consume our paper waste, therefore reducing landfill and the potential for greenhouse gas generation.

A 2005 NSW government study found that for every tonne of toilet paper that is recycled, 400 kg of greenhouse emissions are saved. And according to the Australian Conservation Foundation, every tonne of paper recycled saves 13 trees, 2.5 barrels of oil, 4,100 kilowatts of electricity, 4 cubic metres of landfill and 31,380 litres of water.

Tesco supermarkets in the UK have embraced the Carbon Trust's 'Carbon Reduction Label'. "Through this program Tesco has carbon footprinted its own brand of standard and recycled toilet paper," Klymenko says. "The research showed that the carbon footprint of its recycled toilet paper was over a third lower than that of the standard product."

Eco-friendly products need not be more expensive than their traditional counterparts, and recycled toilet paper is no exception. It generally costs around the same as non-recycled varieties.

Choices

So with an ever expanding presence on supermarket shelves, what separates top-notch brands from the rest?

Read the fine print and look out for product manufactured from 100 percent recycled materials wherever possible. Keep an eye out, too, for brands endorsed by a known environmental group.

Purchase toilet paper in bulk and choose the brand with the most squares per roll to save packaging waste, and when you're finished remember to recycle the cardboard roll. Toilet paper pulled from the top instead of under saves a few extra squares each use.

Recent advertising campaigns may be littered with adorable puppies, cute kids and catchy jingles, but the environmental credentials of recycled toilet paper are gaining ground. And that is - again, pardon the pun - a welcome relief.