Clearwater Paper Corp., Spokane, Wash., USA, reports that it will offer Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified premium and ultra-premium bath tissue, and ultra-premium paper towel products to retail customers. The Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood Program performed all certification audits to ensure conformance to the FSC standards. The company shipped the first batch of these new FSC-certified ultra-premium tissue products in early June.
In June 2010, Clearwater began offering FSC-certified facial tissue to retail grocery private label customers. Since then, the company has applied the FSC logo and the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal to millions of customer facial cartons, and currently supplies the largest case volume of FSC-certified private label products to U.S. retail chains.
"The combination of certified premium and ultra-premium facial products since June of last year, coupled with increases planned this year, means that products certified by the Rainforest Alliance to FSC standards represent more than 50% of Clearwater Paper's total retail product case volume nationwide," said Bob DeVleming, president of Clearwater Paper's consumer products division."
FSC-certification indicates to consumers that the products they are purchasing come from responsible, well-managed forests where forest ecosystems are conserved and the rights of workers and their communities are protected.
TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/