Today I was thinking about the stuff I use almost every day of my life, and I came up with Kleenex. What are its impacts? How much of it ends up in our landfills? I mean, we use it for so many different purposes, from blowing our noses to wiping up spills. Doesn't that lead to a huge need for trees?According to an article written by Marc Gunther, Kleenex, along with other products such as Huggies, Scott, Pull-Ups, etc. attribute to a $16-billion annually to forestry activities. Despite this, Kimberly-Clark, the company owning Kleenex, said that they also use residual woods like sawdust and chips.
Are facial tissues even biodegradable? They're made from trees and seem really thin, but how long do they last in a landfill? I couldn't find a straight answer. Some places said they dissolved within 5 days, others said within 5 months. The answer to this frequently asked question on the Kleenex site itself was rather vague as well: "Kleenex tissue is made with biodegradable cellulose fibers. Because the tissue is made with an additive to make it strong, it will not break down as rapidly as bathroom tissue." So is that a no?.. I figure the wood would dissolve quickly, but then are the additives even more harmful to the environment?
To make matters worse, Kimberly-Clark has been rumored to cut down tree from the oldest forests around Canada, and even indirectly doing so by purchasing wood chips from British Columbia. In a campaign against K-C's use of older trees, Greenpeace organized a boycott of all of their products. They came up with a statement that went as follows: “Did you know that it takes 90 years to grow a box of Kleenex? That’s right, every time you use a Kleenex tissue, you are blowing away ancient forests."
I guess the most sure and positive thing I found out about this mini-research is that the Kleenex box as well as the plastic part are both recyclable. I was actually surprised about that because I would usually rip out the plastic stuff and throw it out, and recycle only the box.
So to sum things up, there are around 100 Kleenexes in a box, we don't know if they're biodegradable...but the box is. I know I use something like 3 or 4 Kleenex a day, so am I contributing to something harmful? Imagine all the people who use Kleenex daily, or the people who get colds. Imagine flu season!
What can we even do about this situation? I think Kleenex is one of those products you can't just go without. I think it has become one of those necessary things people need, and it is hard to find substitutes for it. I doubt people will go back to using hankies, and I think Kleenex's use provides us with cleanliness in disposability.
Want to know more?
Marc Gunther's article, Are Kleenex Tissues Wiping out Forests? from http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/26/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_gunther.fortune/ .
FAQs on Kleenex site: http://www.kleenex.com/na/faq.aspx#E04
Greenpeace's Statement: http://lifegoggles.com/1474/it-takes-90-years-to-grow-a-box-of-kleenex/
All images are from Google.
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