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Reel Paper

Life Changing Paper.

Life Changing Paper.

Founded - 2019
Founders - Livio Bisterzo and Derin Oyekan
Category - Consumer Packaged Goods
Location - Los Angeles, USA

The need for an alternative.

Regular toilet paper made from trees is tremendously wasteful, not to mention untenable in the long term. The equivalent of 27,000 trees are flushed or sent to a landfill every day. The average American will go through 384 trees worth of toilet paper in a lifetime. A big contributor to the massive deforestation that is happening all over the world.

The events of the last few months have forced all of us to devote more thought than we’d like to the subject of toilet paper. But even before the lock downs, many consumers were starting to see the inherent limitations of traditional toilet paper, and were looking for something more sustainable.

Fixing the ‘Tissue Issue’ is a $13BN opportunity in the USA alone.

The largest U.S. tissue product manufacturers - Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, and Georgia-Pacific - continue to make toilet paper from 100 percent virgin forest fiber and feed a devastating “tree-to-toilet pipeline.” This highly commoditized category is in need of an injection of life with these 3 major players controlling 76% of sales in a $13.4BN market in the US.

Introducing Reel Paper. A new kind of bamboo-based paper that’s specifically designed with sustainability in mind.

Toilet paper is one of the biggest consumer product categories and a large contributor to deforestation. It’s also an essential item. Two characteristics that made it very attractive as a product category to go after, ripe for disruption and innovation.
Derin Oyekan, Co-Founder Reel Paper
The paper is delivered in recycled paper wraps and box rather than plastics.
Conveniently delivered to your door.
With each roll of toilet paper consumer are giving back to SOIL.
SOIL’s mission is to promote dignity, health, and sustainable livelihoods through the transformation of wastes into resources.
Biodegradable, bamboo paper which is super soft and strong and without inks or dyes.
The paper is delivered in recycled paper wraps and box rather than plastics.
Conveniently delivered to your door.

A tree-free and biodegradable paper.

Reel's toilet paper is made entirely of bamboo, one of the most sustainable substances on our planet. Bamboo can grow 3ft in just 24 hours, the fastest growing plant on earth and it can be harvested once a year without replanting. It uses 30% less water than hardwood trees. Plus it gives out 35% more oxygen than trees, meaning an acre of bamboo can fix approximately 25 metric tons of atmospheric CO2 per year. Bamboo fibers make a much softer paper product than many made from recycled paper and wood fiber.

Turning deadly poop into fertile soil.

Every day, 2.4 billion people are forced to defecate outside — meaning lost dignity, exposure to deadly pathogens, increased risk of contaminated water, and loss of life. Every Reel Paper purchase helps fund access to clean toilets for those in need through Reel Paper’s partnership with SOIL.

Key Market Insights

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Trees are flushed down a toilet or sent to a landfill every day
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Per capita spend on toilet paper.
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BN
2020 Market size in the US.

Why Squared Circles is invested in the future success Reel Paper.

Reel is an omni-channel paper brand, built to challenge the category leaders with innovation, sustainability, and giving back. Reel has a clear path to become the reference alternative fiber brand within the $30B+ household paper category. They have delivered a successful proof-of-concept launch, selling millions of toilet paper rolls through direct to consumer channels and celebrity endorsements by Maria Sharapova, Jessica Chastain and Tony Hawk in their first 12 months. Growing 1000x in its first 12 months, it is now looking to scale even further through key wholesale partnerships.