According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), harvesting in Canada’s boreal forests is done “sustainably.”
These trees are cut down through techniques that “emulate” natural disturbances, such as wildfires, NRCan told CTVNews.ca last year, in response to a previous NRDC report. CTVNews.ca reached out for comment on this year’s report, but did not hear back by deadline. A response was provided after the story’s publication.
One of those practices used is clear-cutting, NRCan said.
As the map shows, Canada’s boreal zone stretches from Yukon and northern British Columbia to Newfoundland & Labrador. (Natural Resources Canada.)”What is especially egregious is that these products are the epitome of waste products, like paper towels, which most people will use once and throw away,” Jennifer Skene, NRDC solutions policy manager for the Canada program, told CTVNews.ca in an interview. “We’re wiping our counters, we’re cleaning our houses and blowing our noses with one of the most globally important forests in the world, the Canadian boreal.”
CTVNews.ca reached out to all the companies named in the report that sold paper towel brands available in Canada, to ask about sustainable practices and adapting to the environmental needs of Canadians.
Only one company provided comment in time for publication.
PAPER PRODUCT USE IN CANADA
Canadians used about 746,305 tonnes of household and sanitary paper in 2021, according to calculations by Peri Dworatzek, senior data analyst at the Ecological Footprint Initiative at York University.
“For the national accounts, we take millions of data points from various international databases,” Dworatzek told CTVNews.ca in an interview.
The NRDC report looked at paper towel brands on the market in June and determined a sustainability score using data from company websites, product packaging and news releases.
An FSC certification, according to NRDC, is the only system that minimizes logging impacts and safeguards Indigenous rights.
Those behind the report gave Reel’s product the letter grade A+.
Also at the top of the list was the American brand Seventh Generation, which is manufactured by Unilever, the company that owns Dove, Hellmann’s and Axe.
The unbleached version of the paper towel by Seventh Generation ranked higher (A+) than its bleached version (A) due to the chemicals used to make the towels white.
Caboo sells an “earth-friendly” bamboo paper towel, which is available on sites like Amazon and Well.ca for Canadians. But it ranked lower (B) due to bleaching and for not avoiding old-growth bamboo forests, according to the NRDC.
The company addressed the scoring in an interview with CTVNews.ca, saying, “The bamboo is sourced from the Sichuan province of China where bamboo is native to the land and grows abundantly.”
A spokesperson from Caboo said, “Our team visits the area on a regular basis and in fact just came back from a visit to the region where the bamboo is sourced and the production facility.”
The brands Cheeky Panda and NatureZway ranked the same as Caboo for bamboo-based paper towels, for similar reasons.
Walmart’s Great Value paper towel ranked much lower in terms of sustainability, graded a D by those behind the report.
According to the NRDC report, 70 per cent of the product comes from wood harvested from forests, while the remaining 30 per cent is from recycled paper from various sources.
Along with being bleached and not avoiding old-growth forests, it is less sustainable, the report said.
Viva, a brand by Kimberly-Clark, ranked even lower on sustainability due to being 100 per cent forest fibre, according to the NRDC, which gave it a failing grade of F. The company does not have a full FSC certification protecting the environment, which means not all the environmental concerns are addressed. The paper is bleached with chemicals before it is shipped to stores, the organization says.
Georgia-Pacific’s brand Sparkle is 99 per cent forest fibre, but doesn’t have an FSC certification and bleaches the paper, the report said. For these reasons, NRDC gave the brand a grade of F.
Ranking the lowest on the NRDC’s list were brands Great Value Ultra Strong, by Walmart, and Kirkland, by Costco, with no points for sustainability.
Walmart’s brand is 100 per cent made from harvested trees, instead of recycled paper, and has no protections to the environment through certifications and bleaches the product, the report reads.
Costco’s product reportedly had the same issues as Walmart’s, with NRDC giving both products an F.
CANADA’S WOOD HARVEST
In a statement provided after CTVNews.ca published its story, a spokesperson for Natural Resources Canada said harvest area and volume are reported each year through “The State of Canada’s Forests Annual Report.”
The most recently available data from 2020 shows the estimated amount of wood volume in Canada was nearly 50 billion cubic metres, of which 0.28 per cent, or 141.1 million cubic metres, was harvested, the spokesperson noted.
“In comparison, that is smaller than a dime on a letter-size paper,” the statement said. “Of course, and very importantly, the harvested trees are then replanted. Harvested wood is then used by the forest sector for products.”
Trees in Canada are primarily used for softwood lumber, which makes up nearly 39 per cent of the total volume that is harvested, the spokesperson said. Harvested wood also is used for structural panels, hardwood lumber, wood pulp, printing and writing paper, and newsprint. Tissue and towel products, meanwhile, are generally made using wood chips and recycled paper and cardboard, the spokesperson added.
About 94 per cent of Canada’s forest land is publicly owned and managed by the provincial, territorial or federal governments, with the rest privately owned, the statement said. Management plans for Crown land and private commercial forests are also required by law to account for factors such as biodiversity, water, soil and cultural heritage.
“Forest laws in Canada are among the strictest in the world. They protect our forests and ensure that sustainable forest management practices are followed across the country,” the spokesperson said.
“Approximately three-quarters of Canada’s managed Crown forest land is certified to at least one sustainable forest management standard. Third-party forest management certification provides assurance that a forest company is operating legally, sustainably and in compliance with world-recognized standards.”
‘GALLING AND NONSENSICAL’
The NRDC’s Skene said most people don’t make the connection between paper towel and the “vibrant, thriving ecosystem” the material comes from.
“It’s galling and nonsensical,” Skene said. “There is no reason we need to be turning our forests — especially at a moment when we’re on the precipice of climate and biodiversity catastrophe — into products that are as short-lived and wasteful as paper towels and toilet paper.”
This year was the fifth edition of the report from NRDC.
Skene said she has seen improvements in brand awareness and sustainability of products over the years of compiling the report.
“It is very heartening to see that more brands than ever are embracing sustainable tissue products,” she said. “Recycled content or sustainably sourced bamboo has been continuously growing at a pretty fast clip, which has been very exciting to see.”
The NRDC says the goal of its scoresheet is to help consumers understand where the products come from and know which are sustainable. The results, Skene said, are people “appalled” to know the truth.
Canada’s boreal forest stores carbon in the ground from the atmosphere, helping to cool the Earth.
It is also “inextricably” tied to many Indigenous communities across Canada, Skene said.
“Whether you’re talking about species, or the climate, or human rights, and equity and justice, these are all bound up in those little rolls of toilet paper or paper towels that you find on your store shelves.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
