[at-l] Fw: Soft Tissue is Rough on Forests

[Jan Lite]

Here ya go Clyde, tree crusader...From the things I didn't know Dep't.: If
this year everyone bought ONE roll of TP made from recyled paper (NOT the
same as recycled TP), it would save 400,000 trees.Didn't say what the stats
would be for using leaves...
;-)

Here's a guide to brands:
http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp

Then there is this NYTimes article:

Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests

*by*: Leslie Kaufman    26 February 2009
Americans like their toilet tissue soft: exotic confections that are silken,
thick and hot-air-fluffed.

The national obsession with soft paper has driven the growth of brands like
Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra and Charmin Ultra — which in 2008
alone increased its sales by 40 percent in some markets, according to
Information Resources, Inc., a marketing research firm.

But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North
America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees
from rare old-growth forests in Canada. Although toilet tissue can be made
at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber taken from standing
trees that help give it that plush feel, and most large manufacturers rely
on them.

Customers "demand soft and comfortable," said James Malone, a spokesman for
Georgia Pacific, the maker of Quilted Northern. "Recycled fiber cannot do
it."

The country's soft-tissue habit — call it the Charmin effect — has not
escaped the notice of environmentalists, who are increasingly making toilet
tissue manufacturers the targets of campaigns. Greenpeace on Monday for the
first time issued a national guide for American consumers that rates toilet
tissue brands on their environmental soundness. With the recession pushing
the price for recycled paper down and Americans showing more willingness to
repurpose everything from clothing to tires, environmental groups want more
people to switch to recycled toilet tissue.

"No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper," said Dr. Allen
Hershkowitz, a senior scientist and waste expert with the Natural Resource
Defense Council.

In the United States, which is the largest market worldwide for toilet
paper, tissue from 100 percent recycled fibers makes up less than 2 percent
of sales for at-home use among conventional and premium brands. Most
manufacturers use a combination of trees to make their products. According
to RISI, an independent market analysis firm in Bedford, Mass., the pulp
from one eucalyptus tree, a commonly used tree, produces as many as 1,000
rolls of toilet tissue. Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per capita a
year.

Other countries are far less picky about toilet tissue. In many European
nations, a rough sheet of paper is deemed sufficient. Other countries are
also more willing to use toilet tissue made in part or exclusively from
recycled paper.

In Europe and Latin America, products with recycled content make up about on
average 20 percent of the at-home market, according to experts at the
Kimberly Clark Corporation.

Environmental groups say that the percentage is even higher and that they
want to nurture similar acceptance here. Through public events and guides to
the recycled content of tissue brands, they are hoping that Americans will
become as conscious of the environmental effects of their toilet tissue use
as they are about light bulbs or other products.

Dr. Hershkowitz is pushing the high-profile groups he consults with,
including Major League Baseball, to use only recycled toilet tissue. At the
Academy Awards ceremony last Sunday, the gowns were designer originals but
the toilet tissue at the Kodak Theater's restrooms was 100 percent recycled.

Environmentalists are focusing on tissue products for reasons besides the
loss of trees. Turning a tree to paper requires more water than turning
paper back into fiber, and many brands that use tree pulp use polluting
chlorine-based bleach for greater whiteness. In addition, tissue made from
recycled paper produces less waste tonnage — almost equaling its weight —
that would otherwise go to a landfill.

Still, trees and tree quality remain a contentious issue. Although brands
differ, 25 percent to 50 percent of the pulp used to make toilet paper in
this country comes from tree farms in South America and the United States.
The rest, environmental groups say, comes mostly from old, second-growth
forests that serve as important absorbers of carbon dioxide, the main
heat-trapping gas linked to global warming. In addition, some of the pulp
comes from the last virgin North American forests, which are an
irreplaceable habitat for a variety of endangered species, environmental
groups say.

Greenpeace, the international conservation organization, contends that
Kimberly Clark, the maker of two popular brands, Cottonelle and Scott, has
gotten as much as 22 percent of its pulp from producers who cut trees in
Canadian boreal forests where some trees are 200 years old.

But Dave Dickson, a spokesman for Kimberly Clark, said that only 14 percent
of the wood pulp used by the company came from the boreal forest and that
the company contracted only with suppliers who used "certified sustainable
forestry practices."

Lisa Jester, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, the maker of Charmin,
points out that the Forest Products Association of Canada says that no more
than 0.5 percent of its forest is harvested annually. Still, even the
manufacturers concede that the main reason they have not switched to
recycled material is that those fibers tend to be shorter than fibers from
standing trees. Long fibers can be laid out and fluffed to make softer
tissue.

Jerry Baker, vice president of product and technology research for Kimberly
Clark, said the company was not philosophically opposed to recycled products
and used them for the "away from home" market, which includes restaurants,
offices and schools.

But people who buy toilet tissue for their homes — even those who identify
themselves as concerned about the environment — are resistant to toilet
tissue made from recycled paper.

With a global recession, however, that may be changing. In the past few
months, sales of premium toilet paper have plunged 7 percent nationally,
said Ali Dibadj, a senior stock analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company,
a financial management firm, providing an opening for makers of recycled
products.

Marcal, the oldest recycled-paper maker in the country, emerged from
bankruptcy under new management last year with a plan to spend $30 million
on what is says will be the first national campaign to advertise a toilet
tissue's environmental friendliness. Marcal's new chief executive, Tim
Spring, said the company had seen intense interest in the new product from
chains like Walgreens. The company will introduce the new toilet tissue in
April, around Earth Day

Mr. Spring said Marcal would be able to price the new tissue below most
conventional brands, in part because of the lower cost of recycled material.

"Our idea is that you don't have to spend extra money to save the Earth," he
said. "And people want to know what happens to the paper they recycle. This
will give them closure."


-- 
"The Ordinary Adventurer"
A new backpacking adventure book
http://www.FunFreedom.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://patsy.hack.net/pipermail/at-l/attachments/20090311/4f3fce12/attachment.html