Kleenex brand tissue products and its manufacturer Kimberly-Clark scored a failing grade of 'E' on a tissue product scorecard released in the UK by Greenpeace. They received this grade because Kimberly-Clark uses no recycled fibre in Kleenex tissue products in the UK or in North America and the company buys much of its virgin fibre from clearcut areas in Canada’s Boreal Forest.
Though Kimberly-Clark has promised to begin to buy fibre from responsibly managed forests in the future for its UK products, the company continues to manufacture disposable products for the North American marketplace from destructive sources of fibre and with no recycled content. They are wiping out the habitat of threatened woodland caribou and further degrading the last pristine and intact areas of the Boreal Forest.
The largest manufacturer in the world, Kimberly-Clark consumes more than 3.2 million tonnes of virgin fibre each year resulting in a massive impact on the world’s forests.
Canada’s Boreal Forest stores more than 47.5 billion tonnes of CO2 in its soils and trees, helping to moderate the world’s climate. Kimberly-Clark uses more than 45 million trees each year to make toilet paper, facial tissue and paper towels – a conservative estimate.
Kimberly-Clark received the 2nd to lowest ranking in the UK score card, only slightly ahead of Procter and Gamble who did not reply to Greenpeace's enquiries.
Greenpeace believes that Kimberly-Clark could do better by using more recycled fibre in all its products, make suppliers end logging in caribou habitat and intact forests and by bringing in Forest Stewardship Council certified fibre to replace its current virgin fibre from destructive logging operations.
