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What you should know about toilet paper in this pandemic 1:29
(CNN) - As households continue to stock up on toilet paper (emptying shelves across the country), a new website tries to answer the question: how much paper do we really need?
Howmuchtoiletpaper.com is a website created by student software developer Ben Sassoon and artist Sam Harris, both based in London, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The tool calculates how long your paper supply will last during a quarantine.
The idea occurred to them, of course, as they talked about how much toilet paper they used and how that would change during the pandemic.
This is how this website was born.
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The operation is simple. Users enter how many rolls of toilet paper they have and how many times they visit the bathroom.
By scrolling to the "Advanced Options" section you can get details by customizing the average number of wipes per way, the number of sheets per wipe, the sheets on the roll, and the people in the house.
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More than 2 million people have used the tool, the website says, and the average user has a whopping 500% more toilet paper than they need for quarantine.
The main goal of the tool is to reduce the shortage of toilet paper worldwide, which has started as people panic out of fear of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“Not everyone can go to a store and stock up on toilet paper. Don't be selfish, ”the website bluntly indicates.
The demand for toilet paper has increased
The sudden high demand for toilet paper has resulted in the sector working hard to meet the need, said the American Association of Forests and Paper, an industry group that represents manufacturers of paper products.
Last week, some retail orders nearly doubled, said Georgia Pacific, which makes Angel Soft and Quilted Northern toilet paper. The company shipped 20% more than its normal capacity.
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Meanwhile, retailers in the United States and Canada have begun limiting the number of packages of toilet paper that customers can buy in one trip.
CNN's Parija Kavilanz contributed to this report.
coronavirus toilet paper