DEMONSTRATIONS IN 160+ CITIES SPOTLIGHT KLEENEX MANUFACTURER’S ROLE IN BOREAL FOREST DESTRUCTION
Groups urge Kimberly-Clark to stop destroying Canada’s Great Northern Forest to make toilet paper and facial tissue
As part of an International Day of Action to Save the Boreal Forest, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council called on Kimberly-Clark, the world’s largest tissue product manufacturer, to stop destroying Canadian forests. Greenpeace activists demonstrated in over 160 Canadian and American cities today while tens of thousands of concerned citizens around the world flooded Kimberly-Clark with letters and phone calls.
Protests were held from coast to coast in both Canada and the U.S. In Toronto, activists set up an art installation of trees being flushed down toilets. In Williamsburg, Virginia, a group of women held a “Mother’s Protest” against Kimberly-Clark outside of an Ukrop’s grocery store. In Vancouver, a mock clearcut was set up in a public square. In total concerned citizens gathered in over 160 cities in Canada and the U.S. taking part in over 350 events.
“This 10,000 year old forest is literally being flushed down the toilet by tissue manufacturers and the unsuspecting consumers who buy their products,” said Christy Ferguson, Greenpeace forests campaigner. “But people across Canada and around the world are starting to rally to save this magnificent ecosystem, much the way people around the world have rallied to save the Amazon.”
Kimberly-Clark does not use any recycled materials in their “?at-home’ brands such as Kleenex. Instead, the company uses over 3 million tonnes of virgin tree pulp each year, equal to the weight of over 17,000 jumbo jets.
“Canada’s Boreal forest is one of our last great wilderness forests,” said Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, NRDC senior attorney. “It is a crime to destroy it to make tissue products like toilet paper that are used once and then thrown away.”
NRDC and Greenpeace are urging Kimberly-Clark to increase the use of post-consumer recycled fibre and to ensure any virgin fibre used comes from ecologically sound logging operations.