Feature story - April 9, 2009
Global media attention for Greenpeace's international Kleercut campaign leaves Kimberly-Clark alone in the Wilderness
Kleenex - wiping away Canadian forests, one sheet of toilet paper at a time
What you can do:
Send a letter to Kimberly-Clark a
letter telling them you won't buy forest destruction.
Check out the Canadian Greenpeace Tissue Product
Shopper's Guide
Find out if your school, office or other major companies are
using Kimberly-Clark and ask them to buy 100% recycled fibre toilet
paper and other products instead.
Avoid buying Kimberly-Clark products and brands. Buy 100%
recycled tissue and toilet paper instead and use cloth towels,
hankies and napkins.
Don't buy forest destruction. Here are,the brands to avoid:
Pocket-Sized Impact
When Greenpeace forest campaigners in the US issued a
pocket-sized version of the Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper
Consumer Guide it caused a big splash in news media around the
world. One company - Kimberly-Clark - was mentioned in every single
article. As the largest manufacturer of tissue products in the
world and the maker of Kleenex, they stood out as the villain:
responsible for continual destruction of Canada's Boreal Forest to
make disposable products.
No Excuse for Continued Destruction
As a result of this intense media attention across Canada and
around the world, people everywhere are all thinking the same thing
as Greenpeace: there's no excuse for Kimberly-Clark wiping out
ancient forests to make toilet paper and facial tissue.
Kimberly-Clark uses pulp from intact and endangered forests,
including the habitat of threatened species such as endangered
woodland caribou, to make disposable consumer products. They also
supply large amounts of toilet paper, tissue products and paper
towels to major institutions and companies like universities,
office buildings, hotels, restaurants and retail chains.
K-C Alone in the Wilderness
As a result of the controversy surrounding Kimberly-Clark's
purchases of pulp from ancient forests, a number of very large and
high profile customers of the company have cancelled their
purchasing contracts. These include Cineplex, Estee Lauder, and
over a dozen universities and colleges including Vermont, Harvard,
American, Penn State, and Florida.
Learn More About the Kleercut Campaign
Pressuring Kimberly-Clark to stop destroying Canada's ancient
forests has been one of Greenpeace's longest running campaigns.
Tissue guides have been a key component of that campaign: Click here to view the Canadian
version.
Check out the major media attention resulting from Greenpeace's
Kleercut campaign:
- New York Times - Mr. Whipple Left
It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests
- Fox News - Greenpeace Wipes Away
Fox News
- The Guardian - American taste for
soft toilet roll 'worse than driving Hummers'
- Fast Company - Green Toilet Paper
Buying Guide: Be Kind to Your Behind vs. Hug a Tree?
- Fast Company - Kimberly-Clark:
Destroyer of Ancient Trees, Energy Star Partner of the Year?
Other stories:
What's in your Kleenex Box?