Shoppers praise Quilted Northern for starting shift to paper toilet paper packaging

A paper-wrapped pack of Quilted Northern toilet paper gained notice online after a shopper posted a photo of the packaging swap.

What happened?

Instead of the usual plastic film, the photo shared to Reddit showed a six-roll Quilted Northern pack covered in paper.

The user posted it in r/mildlyinteresting under the title "Quilted Northern swapped from plastic to paper packaging."

"Only that six-pack and only some stores, but it's still cool if you can find it," one person wrote.

The sighting lines up with a broader packaging shift across the toilet paper aisle, with companies such as Cottonelle, Charmin, Who Gives a Crap, and Seventh Generation using paper-based wraps as they respond to customer pressure and make pledges to cut single-use plastic.

Why does it matter?

A packaging change such as this is one of the simplest ways to reduce plastic waste without changing an everyday item. It is still the same household essential, just with less plastic film that ends up in the trash.

Changing the outer wrap is also one of the clearest examples of a plastic-reduction step consumers can immediately see.

If paper-wrapped toilet paper expands beyond a few store shelves and six-packs, it could help normalize packaging that uses less plastic.

On the other hand, paper can weigh more than plastic, which could increase shipping pollution.

Paper wrappers may also struggle to hold up in humid storage spaces.

In this space, Europe has been ahead of the United States for years, with paper-wrapped toilet paper and other goods already common across much of the continent.

What are people saying?

The tone in the thread leaned upbeat, even with some caution mixed in.

"That IS mildly interesting!" one commenter wrote, while another said, "Everything old is new again."

A few users were already looking beyond the single sighting to see whether the change would spread.

"Hopefully they'll expand," one person wrote.

Someone else added, "I hope Costco does the same."

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