The thickness of TP is manipulated upwards by adding voids between the layers, this is marketed as "air pockets, air cushions, etc) but it's nothing more than a

The thickness of TP is manipulated upwards by adding voids between the layers, this is marketed as "air pockets, air cushions, etc) but it's nothing more than a marketing trick to explain the cheapening of TP While it's true you don't want an very dense paper to maximize absorbency, the large voids in TP don't affect it's absorbency in a significant way because they are thin and weak and completely colapse when wet. Get rid of the gimmicky air pockets and you'd decrease the thickness by half at least. Edit: you can see this for yourself with a little experiment at home. Get yourself a air-puffed TP (Walmart's house brand is a particularly egregious example) and drizzle a little water on on it, you'll be able to see it's volume actually decreases as it's fluffy air pockets colapse when wet. Compare this to the behavior of a non-scam fluffy absorber like Sodium Polyacrylate (diapers) which will swell in size when wet.