Tissue is an issue for nature
Everyday about 270,000 trees are flushed down the drain or end up as garbage all over the world, a quarter of this in Europe. Hard to believe? Read on...
Europe in Focus
- Every year, Europeans consume 200,000 truckloads of tissue products that end up either flushed down the toilet or in landfills.
- If you stretched out all the tissues used in Europe in one year, it would reach to the moon and back 635 times, and travel around the world 12,000 times.
- Europeans use about four times as many napkins, facial tissues and paper towels as the average world citizen.
Did you know?
... your toilet roll may have contributed to the sell out of forests in the Baltic States and Russia for short term profits. How?
... to make your facial tissue, large areas of untouched forests may have been cut and burnt to make room for fast growing Eucalyptus plantations. How?
... your paper towel may have come from an unsustainable, clear cut forest. How?
... to make your facial tissue, large areas of untouched forests may have been cut and burnt to make room for fast growing Eucalyptus plantations. How?
... your paper towel may have come from an unsustainable, clear cut forest. How?
What are the issues with tissue?
Low recycling rate
Most tissue products bought by household consumers contain very little recycled paper. The recycling rate in the tissue sector is, in general, significantly lower than in the paper sector. The softness, strength and appearance of tissues are used as key reasons to justify the use of virgin forest wood fibres. Once used, tissue paper products are not recoverable or recyclable. Further, the recycling claims often only refer to the wrapping and can be misleading. MORE FACTSDestroying nature
The wood fibres for tissue come from forests all over the world (Canada, Russia, Latin America, US, South Africa, Asia and Europe). The sad news is that in several countries, illegal harvesting, social conflicts, unsustainable logging and irresponsible plantation establishment and management, still threaten forest biodiversity, the survival of many forest species as well as human rights.25% of the wood fibre imports for tissues in Europe come from regions with mainly plantation forestry for pulp (US, Brazil, Chile, South Africa), and a significant part comes from countries where illegal logging is a big problem like Indonesia, Russia, and the Baltic States.
Use of chemicals
Often chemicals are used to bleach tissue products. These can be harmful to our bodies as well as our water supplies. MORE FACTSFuture growth in the sector
The global tissue business is worth over 30 US billion dollars annually, and has grown by nearly 4% per year in the past decade. Significant growth rates can be expected over the coming years which means that more trees will be used for our daily hygiene. How they are cut matters!Europeans use a quarter of the world's toilet paper, facial tissues, handkerchiefs and paper towels.
Three out of four consumer tissue products in Europe are made by Europe's five "tissue giants". The "tissue giants" buy close to 90 per cent of their wood pulp on the open market. Through their massive purchasing power, they can influence the future of our forests.
Find out more about wood pulp and logging in:
