Lightweight fibrous blob found on beach in South Africa

This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes.

Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.

That is very likely a ball of used toilet paper

Very likely a condensed ball of toilet paper fibers and fat from human shit.

UPDATE: for those concerned about my safety (and sanity) it has been disposed of, whether it’s flushable wipes or spongin or asbestos. See my other comment about a burn test-it scorched but did not melt or disintegrate and smelled like burning hair. One last picture taken through a loupe:

https://preview.redd.it/c4t6winv3ixh1.jpeg?width=1951&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d04d71e94a523373739d9d0897a07d88bb28c587

Barehands 😭😭😭

Zooming in it's all fibrous and hairy? It almost looks like a giant ball of lint from laundry machine

Y’all are convincing me to cut it in half. Will update soon. I really don’t think it’s toilet paper because it has coral-like something growing on it. Also going to try a burn test!

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I am afraid that, in line with other people who said fatberg/sewage, this is exactly what a fatberg containing toilet paper remnants can look like. It isn't well known enough that when soap and fat mix in your drains, the soap doesn't clean the fat - with the help of minerals in the water, it undergoes a chemical process that solidifies it. That's why you get fatbergs. When you add toilet tissue and wet wipe remnants to this, as well as the silt and stuff in sewers and waterways, it exacerbates the effect. It eventually gets compressed into this really hard substance.

Moving through pipes and/or erosion in the sea can make it a ball lile the one you have here.

Reason I (regrettably) have this knowledge is because of working in a water system-related job.

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Here's an answer from someone who actually lives in South Africa and knows the marine life. It looks very much like an old dried sea sponge to me. Those fibrous bits are the "skeleton" of the sponge and are called spicules. They don't burn easily because they're made of silica. In rough seas you sometimes get thousands of these washing up (mostly in the Cape) and they stink up the place for weeks before they dry out like this.

Possibly waste from a fibre processing plant that has been subject to time in moving water where it has become compressed and partially cemented with minerals. It seems to have various fibre types in it. Maybe a paper manufacturing/recycling factory - raw paper fibres can be quite coarse if they're for stronger paper or cardboard types and often has multiple origins which would account for the varied appearance.

As someone who runs a reef tank that is definitely not a toilet paper roll, I know this because the pink stuff the small dots are called coralline alage and it takes awhile to grow and requires certain conditions which a toilet paper dosent have I would assume it might be a form of dried out sponge potentially, and that fiber looking on the outside 100% dried dead alage that I can say for sure, I mean shit the whole thing might just be a large condensed clum of dead dried of algae that rolled together as it washed up  

Regarding the hair-this has been sitting in my house in a bowl with rocks for a few years and I do have a cat. So there’s that. My apologies for not doing a better job of dusting before submitting!

Don't know why you're being down voted, it doesn't look like tissue to me as like you said it would dissolve, it does remind me of the stuff that collects on/around wood in the water but it seems like a combination of different things, I think you should cut it in half.

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Y'all are acting like one single exposure to asbestos is a death sentence. Millions of people lived and worked in places with asbestos insulation. Thousands upon thousands worked with the stuff. Yes it is harmful, yes it is linked to cancer, but the chances of OP dying in a fire are now incredibly low.

https://preview.redd.it/t2cyad4iohxh1.jpeg?width=3438&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5eefa6c237012e581cfb3d3002bb845cfe08ffab

Looks like a piece of coral, not a barnacle I guess.

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I thought this was a biscuit 😭