by Shane Henson — February 20, 2012—North America’s fourth largest producer of towel and tissue paper, Cascades Tissue Group, now offers Cascades Moka, a 100% recycled, unbleached bathroom tissue geared toward building owners and facilities managers wanting to purchase environmentally friendly bathroom tissue paper. Beige in appearance, Cascades Moka delivers commercial purchasers the highest hygienic qualities and softness.
In addition to eliminating chemical whitening, Cascades’ value-added tissue product is made of a pulp mix composed of 100% recycled fiber, 80% of which is post-consumer material and 20% are recovered corrugated boxes. The product is also offset with 100% Green-e certified renewable wind electricity; saving 2,500 pounds of CO2 emissions for each ton produced, say the product’s developers.
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% when compared to the pulp mix used in the traditional Cascades 100% 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.
Currently, 3.4 million tons of bath tissue is used annually in the United States, of which 53% is made from virgin fiber sources. Cascades estimates that if a complete swap were made to their environmentally preferable 100% recycled bath tissue, it would save annually 30.6 million trees and 68 million gigajoules (GJ) of energy, which is reportedly equal to the annual consumption of 619,811 households. The new pulp mix in the Cascades Moka innovation goes even further than the standard white recycled pulp because of its lower ecological footprint.
“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.”
