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No Ancient Trees Down the Toilet
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Progressive Portal
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Feb 22, 2005 17:40 PST
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KIMBERLY-CLARK REFUSES TO USE RECYCLED CONTENT IN KLEENEX
OR ITS OTHER POPULAR BRANDS OF TISSUE AND TOILET PAPER
[From the Natural Resources Defense Council <http://www.nrdc.org>]
Kimberly-Clark, the paper-manufacturing giant behind the Kleenex, Scott,
Cottonelle, and Viva tissue and toilet-paper brands (among others), is
contributing to the destruction of some of North America's most
ecologically important forests to make disposable products.
Kimberly-Clark relies on recycled sources for only 19 percent of the
pulp it uses in North America to make toilet paper, facial tissue,
napkins, and paper towels for home use. In its popular grocery-store
brands, such as Kleenex and Scott, the company uses no recycled content
at all. It doesn't have to be that way: The tissue-paper industry as a
whole uses an average of 60 percent recycled material in manufacturing.
Cascades, Canada's second-largest tissue-product manufacturer, meets 96
percent of its pulp requirements with recycled fiber. And
Kimberly-Clark, too, knows how to use recycled fiber: some of its mills
already use post-consumer wastepaper to make tissue paper products, but
it sells the vast majority of these products only to commercial and
industrial consumers.
CONTINUED BELOW ...
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Last year alone, Kimberly-Clark used pulp from more than 2.5 million
metric tons of virgin timber in its tissue-paper products. Much of it
came from clearcut logging in the boreal forest of Ontario and Alberta -
a primeval expanse of pine, spruce, fir, and poplar trees that stretches
across Canada's entire northern range. In addition to providing a home
for caribou, lynx, bear, wolves, a wide variety of songbirds, and other
species, these trees and the thick layers of moss, soil and peat in
which they grow form one of the world's largest terrestrial storehouses
of carbon dioxide and play a critical role in slowing global warming.
Each year, as a result of demand from Kimberly-Clark and other paper
companies, clearcut logging claims half a million acres of these
endangered woodlands.
Write to Thomas Falk, Chief Executive Officer of Kimberly-Clark, and
urge him to completely halt the use of pulp from endangered forests in
the company's toilet paper and tissues and to commit to a major increase
in use of postconsumer recycled materials. Consider telling him that you
will no longer purchase Kimberly-Clark products unless the company makes
these changes.
Take Action
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Send a free fax at:
http://www.nrdcaction.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=52351
More Information
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An introduction to the issue:
http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp
NRDC's detailed refutation of Kimberly-Clark's misleading response to
this campaign:
http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/kcletter.asp
An NRDC page that includes a list of environmentally preferable
tissue-paper brands:
http://www.nrdc.org/naturesvoice/feature2.asp
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