Charmin Reinvents Toilet Paper To Tackle Century-Old Flaw Of Incomplete Tears

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Charmin, known for its bathroom essentials, is making it easier for you to rule over the porcelain throne without too much gruntwork, kinda. The number-one gripe its call centers have been hearing about is that tearing toilet paper squares often leaves behind an odd shape, which not only can be a bit irksome for the user but might also annoy the person after them. Today, it finally has a fix.

People have learned to live with an imperfect tear ever since toilet paper rolls were introduced in the Industrial Revolution. Now, 100 years later, the Procter & Gamble-owned brand is making it its duty to redefine the TP experience with clean and even tears. Its solution sees a reinvented square with scalloped edges, designed to separate evenly every single time.

Image via Procter & Gamble / Businesswire

This innovation, known as ‘Smooth Tear’, is now a part of Charmin’s Ultra Soft category. “The uneven tear is a result of straight perforations that don’t match the direction that consumers pull sheets and where the toilet paper is hung in the bathroom,” explains Gregg Weaver, a senior scientist at P&G. “The new Charmin wavy perforation ensures that you’re able to tear smoothly no matter where and how you tear.”

Uneven tears often lead to excessive usage and potential wastage as customers might yank out another square to make it even, Charmin details. Acknowledging these pain points, the new Ultra Soft Smooth Tear not only allows users to get the perfect amount they desire but also eliminates the frustration of tearing along the perforated line only to be left with a long, broken strip.

You see, the fibers in toilet paper rolls typically run vertically, which means you’d be ripping against the grain, resulting in unpleasant tears, Slate points out. Charmin’s scientists found that a wavy perforation line yielded a clean and neat tear, regardless of whether you’re left-handed or right-handed or are a gentle or aggressive splitter.

Image via Procter & Gamble / Businesswire

After deciding on the perfect toilet paper shape, the number-two objective for Charmin was to adapt its manufacturing processes to accommodate the new design at scale. Interestingly, the redesign took the brand five years to accomplish.

In an era of myriad technological marvels, not many would have thought to reimagine one of the most mundane items in our daily lives. Still, here we are, back to square one (pun intended), with a high-tech, scalloped upgrade. 

[via Slate, USA Today, Procter & Gamble, images via various sources]