The step up to red light restrictions saw supermarkets once again do big business in what we use to do our business - toilet paper.
Photo: 123RF
Supermarkets urge shoppers not to overdo the loo paper
But that urge to take home extra wads of loo roll has resulted in some calling on shoppers to think more green when they hit the shops.
The prime minister had barely said the words "red light setting", warning the country would go to red on 23 January, before the second-nature panic shopping - to stockpile for when nature calls - kicked in.
Countdown's director of corporate affairs, safety and sustainability Kiri Hannifin told Morning Report supermarkets had once again seen a rush on toilet paper after the announcement, just over two weeks ago.
Toilet paper ran low in supermarkets again, last month. Photo: Supplied
Hannifin said it made sense to buy a couple of extra products when you shop, but urged customers; "don't go overboard, you don't need a trolley [full] of toilet paper, because it just puts pressure on our supply chain and means others will go without".
University of Auckland associate professor of psychology Niki Harré said the impulse to stockpile is natural.
"Everybody, suddenly, is aware that they're in a situation that's unpredictable," she said.
"One of the things you can do, is make sure that you've got enough to look after yourself, and the obvious thing is to have supplies.
"It's really a response to unpredictability and the desire to try and have a little bit of control or be prepared for whatever might happen next."
Dr Harré said each set of restrictions gives us the opportunity to re-think how we want to live, and shop.
"For a lot of people, making do has become something that we're reintegrating into our lives, which was, of course, in the lives of our grandmothers.
"They just put up with a pot that had a broken leg forever. Now, we might think, 'I need a new pot because it's broken'."
She likened the impulse to squirrel away unnecessary resources to the tragedy of the commons phenomenon.
"It's a way that people sometimes think in situations where there is actually a really big pool of resources, say, toilet paper and supermarkets, that if you take just a bit extra, it actually doesn't make any effective difference to that pool.
"But of course, if everybody's there at 9am in the morning and takes a little bit extra, it makes a big difference to the size of the pool.
"So, the tragedy of the commons is this idea that if we act on our own interests in a way that's minimal, but everyone does that, then collectively, we create quite a problem for ourselves."
But the trick, Dr Harré said, is to be aware of the impulse and then decide to only purchase what you really need.
In Australia, a three-pronged problem emerged: customers bulk-buying groceries, droves of workers getting infected with Omicron, and supply chain issues saw wet wipes become a hot commodity as barely a loo roll was left on the shelves.
But AUT School of Future Environments senior lecturer Dr Jeff Seadon said they're not flush-friendly.
"Wet wipes are the worst thing that you can use," he said.
"However, if you're desperate, you don't have any toilet paper, you're looking at the leaves outside and they're not too flash, then people use desperate measures."
Photo: 123rf
A flushed wet wipe is destined to end up in a wastewater treatment plant, where staff have to individually pluck them out.
If the sewer stars align - and the wet wipes find coagulated fat to cling to - it can form the stuff of nightmares.
Two years ago, Gisborne council workers waged a seven-hour war with a 15m-long fatberg blocking one of the city's main sewer pipes: deploying brute force with picks, shovels and hoses, to break it apart.
Dr Seadon said if you have to use wet wipes, throw them in the bin rather than down the toilet afterward.
And a future without flushed wet wipes could be on the horizon: Billie Jo Hohepa-Ropiha's company, BDèt, sells sustainable, bathroom-based innovations.
A squirt of the company's foam wash turns toilet paper into a hygienic wipe that is sewer-safe.
Hohepa-Ropiha said it's a more sustainable option for people who need, or want, to feel cleaner after wiping.
"We had a customer... she was 15 and she's basically going to be living in a diaper for the rest of her life, there wasn't much that could be done with her bowel issues.
"She was using hundreds, thousands of wet wipes a year and flushing them down the toilet. And now, she uses BDèt."
Hohepa-Ropiha said she hopes the product can help whānau talk through personal health issues people might feel uncomfortable bringing up.
"There's a real shame around the parts of the body that leak and smell. There's a lot more people in our country and around the world that actually suffer from quite debilitating illnesses, and a lot of people who suffer from these types of illnesses would carry around wipes or use wet wipes.
"In Aotearoa, New Zealand, we had some of the worst cases of bowel cancer and bowel issues, and yet, we're not talking about it."
Hohepa-Ropiha said many people aren't comfortable with the idea of putting used wet wipes in their rubbish bags, for fear of the bag ripping or spilling open.
AUT's Dr Seadon said shoppers trying to choose the most eco-friendly toilet paper should pick a sustainable brand.
"They tend to be unbleached, it doesn't have a nice perfume attached to it, and it hasn't got printing on it," he said.
"Each of those adds to the amount of materials that you've got to put in and therefore, adds to the environmental impact."
Photo: 123RF
Dr Seadon said New Zealand's wastewater system is, for the most part, sustainable - but could be improved on.
"We tend to treat water, very carefully, up to drinking standard, we then run it through the pipes, put it into the toilet, contaminate it, and then send it off to the wastewater treatment plant for cleaning up again before discharge.
"So, we're treating our water to a very high standard, and just putting waste straight into it.
"To improve our systems, the first thing would be to find a source, and this could be stormwater retention tanks that are connected to the systems that don't need the high quality drinking water, so that we utilize some of the stormwater that we have."
Another option, Dr Seadon said, was to separate the solids and the liquids, allowing the liquids to flow through the system and capturing the solids to treat in a more concentrated form.
"Real changes haven't occurred for a couple of hundred years, it's still pretty much the same, but what we have got are more efficient toilets, and they flush away with less water."