Cascades Introduces First Unbleached, Recycled Toilet Tissue for Commercial Market

Cascades Tissue Group, North America’s fourth largest producer of towel and tissue paper, launched a 100-percent-recycled, unbleached bathroom tissue for use in public restrooms.

Cascades already sells a 100 percent recycled content product for the market, but this is the first that is unbleached and therefore visibly different from the standard white roll. The product, called Moka, will be available in late August.

“Beige is the new green, at least as it relates to towel and tissue,” said Cascades Tissue Group CEO Suzanne Blanchet, who personally conceived and championed Moka bath tissue’s development. “The last several years have brought about countless habit changes meant to preserve the environment. The quality of this bath tissue hasn’t been sacrificed one bit, so adjusting to a new color seems like a small step to take for even greater sustainability.”

Moka offers commercial purchasers a way to lessen the environmental impact associated with manufacturing the ubiquitous, single-use product. The tissue is made of a pulp mix composed of 100 percent recycled fiber, 80 percent of which is post-consumer material and 20 percent is recovered corrugated boxes.

The lack of chemical whiteners further reduces the ecological footprint. A detailed life cycle analysis (LCA) of the new pulp mix used in Cascades Moka, which was undertaken by the company, revealed a reduction in overall environmental impact by at least 25 percent when compared to the pulp mix used in the traditional Cascades 100 percent recycled fiber bathroom tissue. The latter had been regarded as the sustainable tissue exemplar in recent years but includes a chlorine-free whitening process for aesthetics.

The production of Moka tissue also is offset with 100 percent Green-e® certified renewable wind electricity, which Cascades says reduces 2,500 pounds of CO2 emissions for each ton of product.

Currently, 3.4 million tons of bath tissue are used annually in the U.S., of which 53 percent is made from virgin fiber sources. Cascades estimates that if a complete swap was made to their environmentally preferable 100 percent recycled bath tissue, it would save annually 30.6 million trees and 68 million gigajoules (GJ) of energy, which is equal to the annual consumption of 619,811 households.

Cascades introduced a Moka napkin line in the late 1990s and says sales have steadily risen as corporate purchasers become more aware of its environmental benefits. In 2004, the Moka napkin line represented ten percent of its total away-from-home sales in North America whereas it now comprises over 23 percent of case sales.

Cascades says the commercial market will continue to serve as the first frontier for sustainable innovations, as people evolve their tastes and habits out in public before modifying behaviors at home.

Bart King is a PR consultant and principal of Cleantech Communications.