8.5.2009 11:01 AM

Kleenex Will No Longer Be Made from Virgin Forests

A Greenpeace campaign against the world's largest tissue maker claims success, as Kimberly-Clark agrees to forest sustainability standards.

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A Billboard posted outside of Kimberly-Clark headquarters, makers of Kleenex tissues. This is the NRDC and Greenpeace's latest step to force the manufactures to use recycled and sustainable materials in their products.

Photo: Courtesy of NRDC and Greenpeace

By Dan Shapley

Just a few days after Greenpeace claimed victory in pressuring Nike and Timberland to stop buying leather from unsustainable ranches that are deforesting in the Amazon, it is celebrating an agreement with Kimberly-Clark that should stop the unsustainable cutting of forests that go into the making of Kleenex and other paper products.

Greenpeace had waged a five-year campaign it called "Kleercut," targeting Kimberly-Clark for its policies on sourcing forest products.

Kimberly-Clark is the largest tissue maker in the world, producing more than 4 million tons annually, at a profit of billions of dollars. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the tissue giant owns the Kleenex, Scott, Viva, Cottonelle, Kotex and Huggies brands. The company had, according to Greenpeace, used "virgin" fiber from clearcut ancient forests in the Canadian boreal, only to produce disposable tissue products that are used once and discarded.

The company's new policy is to use only wood fiber from environmentally responsible sources.

Specifically, by the end of 2011, Kimberly-Clark will stop using any forest products derived from the Canadian boreal unless that wood is Forest Stewardship Council-certified, and the company will ensure that 40% of its North American tissue fiber is either recycled or Forest Stewardship Council-certified, an increase of more than 70% over 2007 levels.