With the average person using 100 rolls of toilet paper per year and the coronavirus incubation period is 2 – 14 days, just how much toilet paper do we actually need and why the great toilet paper pandemic, asks Brand Futurist Tony Eades.
From one of the toughest bushfire seasons to wide scale floods, the country came together in solidarity. Even when Australia went through six years of war overwhelmingly people seemed to be quite united.
Now a single virus from the “wet market” of Wuhan has people fighting amongst each other for 3-ply Kleenex and clearing out supermarkets of all things from sanitisers to bottled water.
What has happened to the Australian spirit? While $180 million was donated to the Red Cross for bushfire disaster relief, a 32 pack of Kleenex toilet paper – which retails for around $15 – sells on eBay for $500. Supermarket trolleys are packed with as many rolls as it could fit, some shoppers attempt to steal toilet paper from other people’s trolleys and even police are called in to attend local Woolies stores. It’s a toilet paper pandemic!
So why the shortage? The average person uses 100 rolls of toilet paper per year (that’s over 20,000 sheets) but the daily production of toilet paper is about 83 million rolls per day.
The coronavirus’ incubation period is believed to be between two to 14 days, just how much toilet paper, sanitiser and tissues could you use in two weeks?
Even online the phrase “toilet paper” in coronavirus stories had surged by nearly 11,000 per cent compared to the previous six weeks, according to media monitoring group, Streem.
As the world stockpiles toilet rolls, bleach and other household essentials, just how would we handle things if a large scale global crisis was to hit? Just look back at the Ministry of Food’s ration book of 1942 during World War Two. In its reasoning the food supply planner stated rationing ‘divides supplies equally’. This included a weekly allowance of a 100g of bacon, 50g of cheese, one egg, just over a litre of milk and a daily loaf of bread.
Somehow Australia didn’t dip to the lows of a knife being pulled over a battle for dwindling loo paper during war time. Dr Knight, president of the Australian Psychological Society, said the bizarre behaviour was the result of concerned consumers trying to take ownership of a seemingly helpless endemic.
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