The tube tanks: Kimberly-Clark rolls out tubeless toilet paper

If you ever made a bird feeder, animal puppet, or make-believe telescope out of an old toilet paper tube, Kimberly-Clark's new Scott Naturals Tube-Free toilet paper could leave you feeling a little wistful. The household paper product giant says its special winding process does away with the familiar cardboard tube. The newfangled rolls will still have a hole in the center that fits over any toilet paper spindle.              
 
Scott Naturals Tube-Free toilet paper will be sold first at Walmart and Sam's Club stores in the Northeast. Depending on consumer response, Kimberly-Clark may then go national with the line. If other manufacturers follow suit, the result could be 17 billion fewer toilet paper tubes, equal to 160 million pounds of trash, And a generation of kindergarteners coming up with the new ways to make an octopus.
 
For another green toilet paper option, consider one of the Consumer Reports-tested recycled toilet paper products.
 
—Daniel DiClerico