Two companies with local ties made a coreless toilet paper roll. Here's why.

“Just about everyone has been there: You sit down in the bathroom and look at the toilet paper roll, annoyed to find only a bare cardboard tube.

But it doesn't have to be that way, according to two paper industry companies with locations in northeast Wisconsin.

A handful of years ago, Paper Converting Machine Company and Essity introduced a toilet paper roll that does not have a cardboard core at its center. When the sheets run out, there is nothing left on the spindle.

While it won't magically make your family replace a finished roll, the coreless product has gained popularity in Europe in recent years, and people could start seeing it on store shelves in the U.S. in the near future, according to Stefano Spinelli, director of product lifecycle management at PCMC, a BW Converting business that's headquartered in Green Bay.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin spoke with Spinelli late last year about the benefits of a coreless product, what makes it possible and how it's an evolution of previous products.”

Quote from Appleton Post-Crescent