The Unbleached Truth: Meet Betterway
Someone said something to me once that I have not been able to unhear. That the most intimate things you use are not your perfume or your silk pillowcase or even your skincare — they are what you put in your body, and what touches your body every single day without you ever really thinking about it.
At Dwell Refine, we talk a lot about the linen that softens with every wash. The colors that make a room feel like it’s actually yours. The skincare that works quietly, from the inside out. Sustainability runs through most of what we cover, usually before we even get to how something looks.
So it follows that this attention belongs in the bathroom too. Not just the toilet paper — the paper towel you grab after washing your hands, the one your kid uses for everything, the one touching skin constantly without anyone thinking twice about it.
Read the Label. We’ll Wait.
This is the part most people skip. We did too, for a long time.
Conventional toilet paper is made from tree pulp, often bleached with chlorine-based processes that leave chemical byproducts behind. Plenty of mainstream brands contain formaldehyde, BPAs, fragrance, PFAS — the “forever chemicals” that stick around in your body long after you’ve forgotten you used them.
Once you know that, the choice gets easier. Bamboo is the better option — quietly, consistently, without asking you to sacrifice anything to get there.
Enter Betterway
Betterway is a woman-led, minority-owned brand built on one idea: better should not be complicated. Their toilet paper and paper towels are 100% FSC-certified bamboo — no trees, no plastic packaging, no PFAS, no formaldehyde, no dyes, no fragrance.
The bamboo itself is sourced from small farms in panda-free regions, hand-cut with a machete instead of heavy industrial equipment. Everything is independently tested every year by SGS, one of the world’s leading certification bodies, to confirm there’s nothing hiding in the formula.
One detail Betterway gets right that almost no one else does: the individual roll wrappers. Most bamboo brands use clinical brown kraft paper. Betterway uses soft, colorful designs that actually look at home on an open shelf — for anyone who has tried to hide a bulk pack of toilet paper behind the toilet brush, it makes a real difference.
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Why Does Bamboo Matter for the Planet?
Bamboo grows ten to twenty times faster than trees — up to three feet in a single day. Cut it, and it shoots right back up almost immediately, instead of taking thirty to fifty years to mature like a replanted forest would. It’s technically a grass, not a tree, which is part of why it regenerates the way it does.
Betterway‘s bamboo is grown organically, without pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, and harvested by hand rather than industrial machinery — no large-scale clearing, no disruption to the surrounding ecosystem. It also releases roughly 35% more oxygen than the equivalent area of hardwood trees while it grows, so the same plant becoming your toilet paper is doing more for the air around it the entire time.
A small material choice, doing a lot of quiet work.
The Full Lineup
Betterway keeps it simple — four products, each one doing exactly what it says:
+ Classic White Bamboo Toilet Paper Long-Lasting Rolls — the familiar shade, whitened using an elemental chlorine-free process
+ Classic White Bamboo Paper Towels (New) — the everyday paper towel, upgraded
+ Natural Brown Bamboo Toilet Paper Long-Lasting Rolls — minimally processed, closer to bamboo’s natural color
+ Natural Brown Bamboo Paper Towels (New) — minimally processed, strong, kitchen-ready
No confusing range to navigate. Pick your shade, pick your product, and the rest of the formula stays the same across the board.
What We’re Stocking
01
Natural Brown Bamboo Toilet Paper — Long Lasting Rolls
The brown is not a design choice. It is closer to what bamboo looks like before processing. Like nearly all brown paper products, ours uses a minimal ECF (elemental chlorine-free) treatment for color consistency, not for whitening. The Classic White uses the same ECF process, just more of it.
- 3-ply, thicker than most bamboo competitors
- 360 sheets per roll — almost double the standard
- Lint-free, no irritation, no dust
- Neat-tear technology, smooth on one side, textured grip on the other
- Plastic-free packaging, recycled cardboard, nothing extra
For context, most premium bamboo brands ship 200 to 300 sheets per roll, and even Charmin Ultra Soft Mega Rolls land around 244 sheets. Betterway’s 360-sheet count means each roll genuinely lasts longer than what most households are used to.
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02
Classic White Bamboo Paper Towels
Same bamboo system, whitened using an elemental chlorine-free process that produces far fewer harmful byproducts than the conventional method.
- (6 rolls) — 90 sheets per roll, 2-ply, 24 GSM
- (12 rolls, new) — 140 sheets per roll, 2-ply, 24 GSM
- Hypoallergenic, no inks or dyes
- Strong, absorbent, holds up to grease and spills without shredding
- Plastic-free packaging, recycled cardboard
- 24 GSM — denser than most bamboo alternatives, which typically range from 16 to 20 GSM
One detail worth noting: the paper towels are a second-generation product. When the originals launched, some customers said the sheets felt less fluffy than mainstream brands — a subjective experience tied to bamboo’s denser, more sustainable manufacturing, not to actual absorbency or strength.
Instead of marketing around the complaint, Betterway upgraded the entire line to 24 GSM across every SKU, increased sheet counts to 140 per roll in the new 12-pack configurations, and rolled out the change quietly. This is a brand that takes feedback seriously and improves the product instead of explaining why the customer is wrong.
Our Honest Roll Call
We’ve been using both for a couple weeks now and have loved them. The toilet paper is soft in a way that doesn’t feel like a compromise — thick, durable, nothing flimsy about it. And knowing there’s no chlorine bleach, no formaldehyde, nothing synthetic against your skin, while also knowing the bamboo itself is doing something good for the planet — that combination just feels good. Hard to explain until you’ve used it.
The paper towels hold up the same way. Strong and absorbent in the way that actually matters — they don’t shred mid-wipe the way some “eco” alternatives tend to. We’ve gone through several rolls already and reach for them the same way we’d reach for anything else in the kitchen, which is really the whole point.
How Betterway Stacks Up
Not all bamboo toilet paper is the same. Here is how Betterway compares to the other brands:
| Betterway | Caboo | Cloud Paper | Charmin | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material | 100% Bamboo | Bamboo + Sugarcane | 100% Bamboo | Virgin tree pulp |
| Ply | 3-ply | 2-ply | 3-ply | 2-ply |
| Sheets per roll | 360 | 300 | 300 | 244 |
| PFAS-free | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Plastic-free packaging | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| FSC certified | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Independently tested | Annual SGS | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Subscribe and Forget About It
Betterway‘s subscribe and save option means you never have to think about running out again:
- Save 10% on every order, automatically
- Choose your box size
- Set your delivery frequency
- Get notified 3 days before your next shipment
- Pay as you go
- Pause or cancel anytime
SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE 10% AT BETTERWAY
Small Swap, Worth Making
Toilet paper is not the easiest thing to make sexy. But choosing something that is actually good for your body and good for the planet — quietly, consistently, without making a show of it — that is its own kind of appeal. Not loud. Not performative. Just better, in the way that holds up no matter how closely you look.
We will take that trade every time.
Everything You Don’t Have to Google
+ Is Betterway toilet paper PFAS-free?
Yes — Betterway is independently tested every year by SGS to confirm no detectable levels of PFAS or other forever chemicals. Both the toilet paper and paper towels are certified free.
+ What is the difference between the Natural Brown and Classic White?
Both use the same ECF (elemental chlorine-free) process, which is the EPA-approved standard adopted by 95% of paper manufacturers globally. The Classic White uses more of it to achieve the traditional white look. The Natural Brown uses only the minimum amount needed for color consistency, preserving more of bamboo’s natural shade. Both are equally safe and sustainable.
+ Is bamboo toilet paper as soft as regular toilet paper?
Betterway was voted the number one softest bamboo toilet paper in a blind test against top sustainable brands, with 96% of participants choosing it as their favorite. The 3-ply construction puts it on par with mainstream options.
+ Does Betterway offer a subscription?
Yes — subscribe and save 10%, with flexible delivery frequency, three-day advance notification before each shipment, and the ability to pause or cancel anytime.
+ Is Betterway good for sensitive skin?
Bamboo is naturally hypoallergenic. Betterway products contain no inks, dyes, fragrances, formaldehyde, or BPAs — making them a strong choice for anyone with sensitive skin.
+ What makes Betterway different from other bamboo toilet paper brands?
The key differentiators are 3-ply construction (thicker than most bamboo competitors), 360 sheets per roll (almost double the standard), lint-free formula, and plastic-free packaging throughout. Independently tested annually, and built around the idea that better is not a marketing word — it is the standard.
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Cover image via House & Garden
A note: this post contains affiliate links. If you click and buy, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. We only write about things we’d actually bring into our home — Betterway included.
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