Hope you like our version of Christmas tree. We are pretty proud of our creation that is sustainable, functional and cost effective.
Just like that, we started with a simple idea to be more sustainable in our lifestyle. This is how The Rollieco is born. We were pretty shocked to find out that 27,000 trees are being cut down globally just to satisfy our need for single use toilet papers. To make things worse, “made from 100% virgin pulp” labels can be seen all over the regular toilet paper brands like a badge of honor.
We felt that there must be a better way. After months of searching and testing, we finally created The Rollieco. Soft and smooth textured toilet rolls made from recycled papers. We designed the packaging with sustainability in mind and decided on paper wrappers and carton boxes which are both reusable and recyclable. We chose 3-ply as most people we surveyed uses 3-ply. We chose 400 sheets per roll instead of 200 because simply it can be used longer, save storage space hence lower carbon footprint.
We thought that we have cracked the problem. We thought that everyone would jump at our product, ditching the virgin pulp toilet rolls because that is the right thing to do…. right?
But we can’t be more wrong. Weeks and months went by with also no sales other than support from friends and families. We faced a lot of skepticism, misconceptions and rejections. It seems people just do not get it. We tried to promote it as hard as we can afford to but it seems like a marketing black hole. Sucking in every dollar you put in.
Then eventually, someone took a chance on us. First few orders from people outside of our social circle were exciting yet scary. Will they like our product? or bash us up on social media? Luckily it turns out not too bad. Many loved our concept and our product. We were so happy to see returning customers! Some gave good reviews and some gave constructive feedback on how we can improve which we hope to make those tweaks in the future batches. This gave us traction and much needed motivation to persevere on.
It is said that recycling 1 ton of paper equals to saving 17 trees from being cut down. So for the past few months, together with your support, we have saved about 45 trees and planted 260 new trees (we plant 1 tree for every box sold. see our impact here).
After much blabbering, we just wanted to say a BIG BIG thank you to every single one of you who took a chance on us. You have supported us and believed in us and our cause. Together, we can all change the world for the better.
Merry Christmas and Happy new year!!!
Yours Sincerely,
Stephanie and Andrew