 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
World's Forests Being Flushed Down The Toilet
The makers of Europe's toilet paper and other household paper good are contributing to deforestation by failing to offer consumers enough recycled products, conservationists said Monday. "Everyday about 270,000 trees are effectively flushed down the toilet or end up as garbage around the world; such a use of the forests is both wasteful and unneccessary," said Duncan Pollard of WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund. According to a WWF study, the five biggest manufacturers of disposable paper products in Europe are Procter and Gamble, SCA, Kimberly Clark, Metsa Tissue and Georgia Pacific, which control about 70 perent of the European market. The vast majority of their products contain "alarmingly low levels" of recycled fibers, it said. That means that "virgin fibers" extracted from natural forests and tree plantations around the world "end up as waste without the consumer's knowledge," the Switzerland-based international conservation group said in its communique. "Consumers have no idea that they may be threatening the world's forests when they go to the bathroom," said Pollard, who heads the WWF program on European forests. The manufacturers claim that retailers mainly want non-recycled products because that is what consumers choose, the WWF said. "It's a myth that recycled tissue products are not of good quality," Pollard said. The European tissue business is worth around 8.5 billion euros (10 billion dollars) annually and accounts for 26 percent of global consumption. Each European uses on average 13 kilos of paper products per year, the equivalent of some 22 billion rolls of toilet paper, the WWF said. The WWF has asked the companies to better inform consumers about how much of their household paper goods are made with recycled fibers and to advise them to buy brands of recycled toilet paper and tissues. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links TerraDaily Search TerraDaily Subscribe To TerraDaily Express 
Deforestation Rate 'Alarming', But Net Loss Slowing: FAO
Rome (AFP) Nov 14, 2005Forest covering an area about the size of Greece disappears each year around the world, but replanting efforts are beginning to reverse the trend, according to a report Monday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
|
|
| |||||||||
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service. |
