Your donation today will triple NRDC’s next great chapter in protecting our ecosystems and saving endangered wildlife.
NRDC’s 2022 Fabric Scorecard features more sustainable tissue product options than ever before, while even industry laggards like Procter & Gamble (P&G) are showing early signs of responding to the market. climate conscious.
The lifespan of a toilet roll in your bathroom may seem short-lived, but its impact on the climate can be long-lasting. As the world faces unprecedented climate change, disposable toilet paper brands like P&G Charmin toilet paper continue to divert boreal and other climate-sensitive forests into consumers’ toilets, creating an unsustainable “tree-to-toilet pipeline” with devastating consequences for humanity. indigenous peoples, wildlife and global climate.
In the new 2022 Tissue Scorecard, NRDC provides the latest sustainability data in the toilet paper, paper towel and facial tissue markets, showing which companies are using eco-friendly products and which are exacerbating the climate emergency.
Last year’s 2021 Scorecard highlighted the many new products consumers can choose from that don’t come from the world’s forests, especially old-growth forests that have never been harmed by industry before. This year’s scorecard now evaluates more products than any previous edition and includes updated methodologies that reflect the growing urgency among scientists to call for the protection of primary forests because they have irreplaceable climate value and provide services found nowhere else. This species provides important habitat. .
As this year’s scorecard shows, America’s biggest toilet paper brand continues to harm the climate, communities and biodiversity by producing products from forests like Canada’s boreal forest, which stores more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem. A lot of them. Flagship brands such as Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Georgia-Pacific, whose Charmin, Cottonelle and Quilted Northern brands are rated F, continue to make products almost entirely from virgin forest fibers and cannot avoid sourcing from virgin forests.
The new scorecard also includes a wider range of store brands, many of which are at the bottom. Home Depot has faced scrutiny from investors this year over its forest products sourcing practices, joining Lowe’s and ALDI on the list of companies that have failed to create sustainable, eco-friendly toilet paper brands this year.
As opposed to companies that are “laggarding”, the 2022 scorecard focuses on the range of New Forest-friendly brands that consumers can choose from. Of the 142 products assessed, 17 received an A rating and 17 received an A+ rating, with brands using recycled materials overall scoring top marks for their lower carbon footprint and reduced forest impact (according to Environment Paper Web’s Paper Calculator 4.0, recycled materials have only one-third the carbon footprint of fabric fibers made from virgin wood). New to the list are grocery chains Kroger, H-E-B and Ahold Delhaize (owner of Stop & Shop and Giant Food), each of which sells their own private-label lines of 100% recycled paper products.
More bamboo brands have also appeared on the scorecard, reflecting the growing market for alternative fiber toilet paper. Of the 34 products rated B or B+, several brands are made from 100% bamboo fiber, which has less environmental impact than virgin forest fiber but less environmental impact than recycled fiber and some agricultural wastes such as others alternative fabric materials (wheat). straw) occupy a large area. However, the sustainability of bamboo varies, and one of the most important factors is whether it comes from bamboo plantations created by logging and converting old-growth forests. That’s why a growing number of bamboo tissue companies are seeking certification with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo on their products, which helps show consumers that the fiber is sourced in a manner that respects human rights and limits negative impacts on forests.
Georgia-Pacific earned a B+ rating for the first time by offering 100% recycled toilet paper directly to consumers. Kimberly Clark did the same thing last year; The move makes P&G the latest of the “big three” U.S. toilet paper companies to still receive an F rating for all of its toilet paper brands, including Charmin, Puffs and Bounty.
But progress from P&G could be coming soon. Although still in the testing phase, Procter & Gamble has begun selling its new Charmin Ultra Eco brand, made from 100 percent bamboo, online. Although the product is not yet FSC certified and is not yet widely or reliably available to consumers, this development marks the first time the company has attempted to offer consumers a greener alternative to forest flushing.
The new test product represents P&G’s tacit acknowledgment that business as usual will leave the company behind in a market that is rapidly adapting to consumer sustainability demands. Signs of these changing consumer preferences were recently reflected in The New York Times’ “Best Toilet Papers of 2022″ list, which named Seventh Generation’s 100% recycled toilet paper as one of Yoo Charmin’s “new favorites.”
Unfortunately, P&G’s small move into alternative fibers cannot offset the damage caused by its virgin forest fiber brands, which remain its core products. Additionally, it is not an adequate response to a resolution passed by 67% of the company’s voting shareholders in 2020, which called on the company to determine how to eliminate deforestation and total forest degradation from its supply chain. Therefore, as the company’s annual shareholder meeting approaches on October 11, P&G shareholders must continue to hold the company’s management accountable for failing to meet the urgent need created by the current climate crisis.
When people think about climate disruption, images of burning dirty energy often come to mind, but that’s not all. It is also similar to the industrial logging of some of the world’s last remaining old-growth forests to produce disposable paper products. Now more than ever, we need brands willing to become true climate leaders and stop turning trees into toilet paper. Instead, they can adopt existing solutions by incorporating recycled materials and other sustainable alternatives into their products. It’s not just consumers who can’t wait to see action from companies like P&G, but our planet, too.
By registering, you will become a member of the NRDC Activist Network. We’ll keep you up to date with the latest alerts and progress reports.
Post time: May-30-2024