More and more price-conscious customers have been going green unwittingly by wiping their butts with recycled toilet paper, instead of the toilet paper made from virgin fibers of wood pulp. The demand from businesses and households has bounced back for cheaper recycled toilet paper than pulp-made one. Recycled toilet paper mostly assigned for public use has been selling like hotcakes as a large turnout is increasing the use of public restrooms in frequency. Many households are putting more decision weights on how hard their pockets are hit than on how their butts feel.
 
An increase in market share for recycled toilet paper targeted at businesses has contributed to an increase in the shipping amount of sanitary paper including toilet paper. According to the Japan Paper Association, the amount of shipped sanitary paper reached 1.546 million tons in the period between January and October in 2022, a 5.3 % increase year-on-year, a 4.3 % increase on a year-on-year comparison in October. Given the estimated figures based on what ingredients the shipped toilet paper made from, the proportion of recycled paper increased from 55 % in 2021 to 58 % in 2022 in the same period between January and June. Although a spring price hike in recycled toilet paper shrank the price gap between the recycled paper and low-quality pulp-made paper, making the low-quality pulp-made paper look attractive for cost-conscious customers for a while, after autumn, the business consumption of recycled toilet paper was boosted.
 
Behind strong demand for recycled toilet paper for commercial use is a swingback to the original crowdedness in the areas where people used to gather before the pandemic for outdoor pleasure. With the government-subsidized measures to promote domestic tourism, growing tourist traffic has been increasing the consumption of recycled toilet paper rolls in airports and train stations. The frequency of exchanging toilet paper rolls for new ones has been coming close to the pre-pandemic levels in commercial facilities where recycled paper is used mostly for cost-saving. With the lenient border control, the role of recycled toilet paper rolls has been emphasized to welcome a growing number of international buttocks.
 
With many households giving up modest luxury in the bathroom, sales of recycled toilet paper rolls for household use have been growing. A series of price hikes in 2022 made toilet paper rolls made from virgin fibers of wood pulp more expensive than recycled ones, although the price of recycled toilet paper rolls went up due to a lack of office-related paper waste as a source of recyclable materials for toilet paper. For many households managing on a small budget, the challenge of juggling what they need and what they want has been getting big, making them put the sense of money before the sense of touch. The smooth touch of the plush texture generated from pulp-made paper on their skin has been replaced with the scratchy touch of recycled toilet paper to save money as well as the earth.