This new video has just been produced by our colleagues on the other side of the pond as a reminder that Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Kleenex, are still ravaging forests in North America to produce their tissues. It's based on a recent US advert and unfortunately I haven't been able to find the original to compare it with, but the message still comes across loud and clear.
Its release has been timed to coincide with Kimberly-Clark's annual shareholder meeting later this month in Dallas, and the US team are doing everything they can to draw attention to the company's forest-trashing practices. A previous video, an interview on Fox News and a tissue buyer's guide earlier in the year are just some of the methods being deploying. You can help by writing to Kimberly-Clark to demand they stop trashing forests and start making their tissues from recycled or sustainable materials.
In the US, brands like Kleenex, Scott and Cottenelle contain almost 100 per cent virgin fibre, some of which is still being ripped from the ancient boreal forests of North America. But there's a strange case of double-standards going on because in the UK, Kleenex and Andrex (another name from the house of Kimberly-Clark) now carry FSC labels showing the raw materials come from well-managed sources.
Making all their products from recycled paper would be even better, but why the different stance in different countries? Kimberly-Clark bosses have been claiming that it's what US customers want but Greenpeace campaigner Lindsey Allen has demolished those assertions and pointed out the gaping holes in K-C's sustainability standards.
Some consistency across their global operations would be nice, particularly if it means their tissues contain only recycled or FSC-certified paper. After all, is it right to be wasting such precious forests on something to wipe your nose on and then throw away?
