Manufacturer of Kleenex brand tissue products implicated in ancient forest destruction
(Toronto, 18 Nov 04) Calling on the maker of well-known tissue paper brand Kleenex to stop destroying ancient forests, Greenpeace Canada today launched an international brand damage campaign against Kimberly-Clark, and its Kleenex brand, for its role in destroying Canada's ancient Boreal forest. The launch took place in Canada's three largest metropolitan centers, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, with a mobile Kleercut 'tissue box truck' full of activists driving through downtown streets informing consumers about Kimberley-Clark's environmental record. Greenpeace is working in conjunction with US-based Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) on this campaign.
Greenpeace and NRDC are calling on the world's largest tissue product manufacturer, to switch to using post-consumer recycled paper in its products. For over a year, Greenpeace and NRDC have been urging Kimberly-Clark to take substantial steps to protect ancient forests and they have consistently refused.
"It takes 90 years to grow a box of Kleenex, but a few seconds to throw away the facial tissue," said Richard Brooks, Greenpeace Canada's forests campaigner. "It's wasteful and irresponsible that Kimberly-Clark uses virgin wood fiber from ancient forests to make disposable tissue products like Kleenex when it could easily use recycled paper."
A substantial amount of the pulp Kimberly-Clark uses to make its disposable products comes from the Boreal forest in Canada. In 2003, the company used 2,550,000 metric tonnes of virgin fiber to produce its tissue products. Only 19% of the pulp it used in North America was recycled--well below the sector average. Its best-known products include Kleenex facial tissue, toilet paper and napkins all sold in the United States and Canada. The Kleercut brand will appear on web sites (http://www.kleercut.net), posters, factsheets and t-shirts informing Canadians that purchasing Kleenex means supporting ancient forest destruction.
"Consumers need to know that when they buy Kleenex brand products, they are contributing to the clearcutting of one of the few remaining ancient forests in North America," added Brooks. "The Boreal forest is Canadia's natural heritage and Kleenex and Kimberley-Clark are contributing to its destruction."
With its Kleercut campaign, Greenpeace is appealing directly to Canadians with one clear message--do not buy Kleenex and do not support Kimberly-Clark's destruction of ancient forests like the Boreal Forest.
Greenpeace is demanding that Kimberly-Clark:
- Stops using wood fiber from endangered forests such as the Boreal forest.
- Stops producing tissue products using only virgin wood fibers and instead maximizes the percentage of post-consumer recycled content in all of its products.
- Turns to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) eco-certified forestry operations for what virgin wood fibers it does use. (see www.fsc.org for more info on FSC)
