Tesco To Roll Out Carbon Labels for TP and Kitchen Towels

May 22, 2009

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Tesco, a major UK retailer, plans to announce that its toilet and kitchen rolls are the next products to join the company’s list of products with carbon labels. The labels are expected to start appearing on products in late summer.

The carbon label pilot kicked off in April last year on 20 Tesco products in four different categories: laundry detergent, orange juice, potatoes and light bulbs and is now on 100 Tesco lines across the four categories, says the company.

The carbon labels will tell customers the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases produced during the lifetime of the product including use and disposal.

Research conducted by Tesco with the Carbon Trust shows that the carbon footprint of its own-brand recycled toilet paper is over a third lower than that of the Tesco standard product. Each sheet of Tesco recycled toilet roll produces around 1.1g of carbon compared to around 1.8g for the Tesco standard toilet roll.

The carbon footprint of the Tesco recycled kitchen roll is 15 percent less than the Tesco standard kitchen roll.

The reduction in carbon footprint is partly due to the environmentally friendly production process of using an integrated tissue mill, according to the company. The transformation from waste paper to tissue paper is all done at one site, which translates into higher energy efficiencies.

The company also recently announced that its carbon footprint for the year 2008/2009 was 9.4 percent lower per square foot of net sales compared to the previous year. It is also testing a new policy that lets customers remove and leave plastic and paper packaging from products purchased in store.

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