Tissues: not something many of us spend a great deal of time thinking about. As long as they does the job, what more do you need? But when you begin to consider where that paper has come from and the impact it has on forest areas, it starts to become a lot more interesting. That's why we've produced a new tissue product guide - search the guide to discover which brands of toilet roll, kitchen towel, and tissues are kind to forests as well as your nose.
We wrote to each major retailer and manufacturer asking them where their tissue paper comes from, and if it contains recycled paper or paper that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
The results were collated into the product guide and the various companies were ranked in the league table below. The top line results are that Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's are both on top, whereas Boots and Somerfield are the rough stuff at the bottom of the pile.
| Marks and Spencer | A | Top of the class, should still add more recycled content |
| Sainsbury's | A | Top of the class as well! Should still add more recycled content |
| Asda | B | Almost there, needs to drop last few dodgy products |
| Co-op | B | Doing well, but need to increase environmentally-friendly content |
| Morrisons | C | Pleased to see commitment to improve by the end of the year |
| Tesco | C | Making progress but need to do more |
| SCA (Velvet/Naturelle) | C | Good recycled ranges, but failed to provide information on other products |
| Georgia Pacific (Lotus, Nouvelle) | D | Failed to provide information on key products |
| Superdrug | D | Improving, all products FSC certified by the end of the year, but where is the recycled? |
| Waitrose | D | Disappointing grade, but good to see commitments in place for next year |
| Kimberly-Clark (Kleenex/Andrex) | E | Current purchasing poor, but better commitments going forward |
| Boots | E | Completely inadequate. Needs to fulfil long term promises |
| Somerfield | E | Terrible! No plans to be forest friendly |
| Procter and Gamble (Charmin, Bounty, Tempo) | F | Failed to report |
A couple of years ago, most tissue products were soft, strong and very very wrong as very few companies were using paper derived from well-managed forests. In the UK, much of the paper used in tissue products has traditionally come from either Canada, Finland or Russia where environmental and social concerns are often of little interest to logging companies.
Today, the situation has changed and some companies have significantly improved their policies so they use only forest-friendly paper, and that means paper with as much recycled content as possible and the rest has to be FSC-certified. Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's, for instance, now only stock green tissue products, with Asda not far behind. The good news is that others such as Morrisons have made commitments to improve their policies in the near future.
At the other end of the scale, Somerfield say they have no plans to get their act in gear while the performance of Boots is atrocious. Way back in 1992, the company made a public commitment to get all their timber and paper products from well-managed forests, but our product guide shows only one of their lines being even close to forest friendly.
Kimberly-Clark, target of our Kleercut campaign in North America, have recently announced that, in the UK at least, their Kleenex and Andrex brands will carry FSC certification soon. However, they won't be using recycled paper as much as they could and internationally they've made no such commitments.
Procter and Gamble, makers of Charmin, Bounty and Tempo, wouldn't tell us what goes into their products, so they got an F for 'fail' on the league table.
If you want to do your bit to help protect what's left of the world's forests, check the tissue guide for your regular brands and see how they fare. Either of the green categories means you're doing well, but beware the red.
