Genius? Toilet paper with no ‘roll’ to hit market

Of course, this is something we’ll have to see in practice before it’s declared totally awesome.

But if you’re tired of toilet paper roll spindles consuming valuable space in your tiny bathroom trash can, Scott’s newest product might just make your day. Yes, the marketing geniuses at the paper products manufacturer have discovered how to bypass the existence of those annoying brown cardboard cylinders that most people in the house can’t seem to figure out how to replace.

A “special winding process” has been developed to facilitate the elimination of the tubes, and Kimberly-Clark, owner of the Scott brand, is pretty impressed with itself for both the green aspects of the discovery as well as the innovation in what is pretty much a stagnant market:

The 17 billion toilet paper tubes produced annually in the USA account for 160 million pounds of trash, according to Kimberly-Clark estimates, and could stretch more than a million miles placed end-to-end. That’s from here to the moon and back — twice. Most consumers toss, rather than recycle, used tubes, says Doug Daniels, brand manager at Kimberly-Clark. “We found a way to bring innovation to a category as mature as bath tissue,” he says.

The product will be tested in Walmart and Sam’s Club locations in the Northeast, spreading nationwide if the concept takes off. If it does well, expect tube-less paper towels in the future, too. Should this all come to pass, with what will pre-schoolers make telescopes and rain sticks now?