Kleercut.Net Kimberly-Clark and Kleenex are wiping away ancient forests

Today two climbers unfurled a banner at the Kimberly-Clark World Administrative Headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee while additional activists locked down to the front entrance of the building.

This was the latest in a series of actions designed to bring the reality of Kimberly-Clark's ancient forest destruction to the company doorstep.
The international Kleercut campaign wants Kimberly-Clark to stop purchasing pulp from destructive logging operations in the North American Boreal Forest while increasing its use of recycled materials for disposable products like Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle.

Toronto, Canada — Greenpeace Forests Campaign Coordinator Richard Brooks has been named to a "Top 50 Power List" of people considered the most influential in the global pulp and paper industry.

This recognition comes at a time when the Greenpeace forest campaign is celebrating some recent victories and continuing its pressure on Kimberly-Clark for forcing the clearcutting of intact areas of the Boreal Forest.

We all know Kimberly-Clark (K-C) does not use recycled fiber content in their products. As the world’s largest tissue producer this behavior contributes to the destruction of ancient forests essential in fighting climate change and providing habitat for native wildlife.

This morning, in Franklin, Massachusetts, Greenpeace activists, dressed as movers, welcomed the Kimberly-Clark employees as they moved into their new office space, moving in boxes of products containing recycled content. Activists then locked down to while inside the building only willing to leave if K-C agreed to sign a pledge to protect forests and use recycled content in Kleenex. It's time for K-C to change more than office space.

More photos are available here.

Greenpeace along with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) targeted K-C in the hometown of their world headquarters in Texas. This past Monday, between Irving and Dallas, Texas, a billboard was erected, "Kleenex: Wiping Away Ancient Boreal Forests," to greet Interstate-183 passersby. The billboard sits on the likely route many K-C employees and executives drive to work and serves as a reminder that Greenpeace expects more out of the world's largest tissue paper manufacturer.

Check out the billboard and the write-up in the Los Angeles Times Blog

Blockade by activists halts trucks entering and leaving New Milford Kleenex facility

As we all know, Kimberly-Clark refuses to stop destroying ancient forests to make Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle products. Since the company has been unwilling to create a fiber policy that increases the use of recycled fiber and because they continue to destroy ancient forests, Kleercut activists today launched a blockade at KC’s New Milford, Connecticut facility. This massive plant accounts for 40% of the Kleenex and Scott products for the United States; most products made here contain little or no recycled fiber.

The blockade started around 11:00 AM local time when three activists locked themselves to the South Gate of Kimberly-Clark’s facility, halting truck traffic into and out of the gate. In the meantime, two activists distributed tree seedlings with an attached note that read: “We know Kimberly-Clark can do better. Here is a start.” onto cars in the employee parking lot. The fact sheet distributed at the same time requests KC employees “ask KC to be an environmental leader,” given, as a paper company, its responsibility to protect the forests.

A new Greenpeace report reveals that Kimberly-Clark devastated Ontario’s Kenogami Forest while promoting itself as a leader in environmental and social responsibility.

Download the report now and take action.

Cut and Run uses government information, independent audits, public records, and satellite mapping to document Kimberly-Clark’s management and logging of the Kenogami Forest near Thunder Bay, Ontario. It details how, in just 70 years, the Kenogami Forest has been turned from a vast expanse of healthy, near-pristine forest, to a severely damaged landscape rife with social and environmental problems--largely to make products that are used once and then thrown away.

The Cottonelle dog-bus showed up in Philadelphia, and – like New York just weeks ago – Greenpeace was there to stand up for ancient forests. This time the strange looking dog-bus was parked across from Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Cottonelle-hawking marketers invited passersby to come aboard the bus to talk about butts and, of course, buy Cottonelle.

Is Cottonelle coming to a town near you? Send us an alert and help us track the Tour!

Logging in Canada's Boreal Forest is exacerbating global warming by releasing greenhouse gases and reducing carbon storage, says a new Greenpeace report released today. It also makes the forest more susceptible to global warming impacts like wildfires and insect outbreaks, which in turn release more greenhouse gases. If this vicious circle is left unchecked, it could culminate in a massive and sudden release of greenhouse gases referred to as "the carbon bomb," the report warns.

Download the full report

Building on the momentum of Universities that have removed Kimberly-Clark products for alternatives high in recycled fiber, the Kleercut campaign announces the launch of Kleenex Free Schools. The program is designed to give parents and teachers the tools they need to replace Kleenex in homes and classrooms.

Each year Kleenex markets to our children through internet, television and handouts in our classrooms. It’s time to counter this marketing with education on how to reduce the impact we each have on the Boreal Forest. The first step is as simple as letting Kleenex know you plan to replace them in your home or school.

For ideas on how to replace Kleenex in your school download the toolkit at www.Greenpeace.org/Schools and please take a moment today to send Kimberly-Clark a photo message.

Kleenex Free Schools Toolkit

Sample Letter to Kleenex