Germans Flush Out Loo Roll Usage

Germany's civil servants have been drawn into an investigation into how much toilet paper they use - and are being encouraged to calculate the amount by the sheet.

The inventory follows a parliamentary question by a Green party MP, Alexander Bonde, after it was erroneously reported that defence ministry civil servants and soldiers used 800m rolls of paper a year.

He said he was flummoxed as to how the ministry's 360,000 employees could be using 10 rolls each a day. "Maybe toilet paper has military uses that we are not necessarily aware of," he said. Christian Schmidt, parliamentary state secretary for the defense ministry, said the calculation had erroneously been made per sheet, not per roll. "One can calculate therewith that for every working day each employee uses a total of 8.8 sheets," he said.

He added he was astounded "at the precision with which data about individuals' use of resources is calculated".

Mr Bonde said he simply wanted to establish "the sustainability of the government's paper resources". Other ministries have since laid their toilet roll usage bare. Last year the health ministry used 2.74m rolls to the finance ministry's 5.37m.