Toilet Paper Losing Cardboard Tube

Kimberly-Clark rolls out experimental line next week

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 27, 2010 4:19 PM CDT

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Toilet Paper Losing Cardboard Tube — Rolls of toilet paper featuring both Democratic and Republican leaders sit for sale in a bin at a rally to kick off the Tea Party Express bus tour Monday, Oct. 18, 2010, in Reno, Nev. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Toilet paper is ditching its cardboard tube, an experiment that USA Today calls the "biggest change in 100 years" for the humble roll. TP giant Kimberly-Clark will test a line of Scott Naturals that stays wound without a tube at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores next week. The move is being marketed with the "green" buzzword, but does carry a legitimate environmental benefit: Kimberly-Clark estimates that toilet paper tubes account for 160 million pounds of American trash every year.
(Read more toilet paper stories.)