FEATURE Sustainable disposables
Stuart Hands, from Tork manufacturer Essity, looks at ways of making paper-based disposables more environmentally-friendly by using sustainable raw materials, reducing waste, limiting consumption, and by recycling used products wherever possible.
Paper-based disposables are widely used in industrial environments as well as in kitchens and washrooms, and this situation is unlikely to change any time soon.
Disposables offer numerous advantages, particularly in the wake of a global pandemic. They are always clean and contaminant-free at point of use, for example, and they can be used once and then discarded. As a result, any bacteria or viruses they may have picked up are thrown away with them.
Disposables in sheet or roll form also take up less space than bulky textiles, which means they cut down on transport and storage costs. They also require no laundering – a process that can be costly, time-consuming, and inconvenient.
However, in light of the climate emergency, it’s only right that we should strive to limit our consumption of single- use products where possible. This can only be achieved by choosing the right products in the right systems for the right tasks.
Many companies are changing the way they make their disposable products to make them more sustainable. Manufacturers are increasingly using recycled fibres and environmentally-friendly raw materials in their processes, for example, while also reducing plastic packaging.
Essity recently invested in technology to make tissue fibre from renewable wheat straw at its mill in Mannheim, Germany. Wheat straw is the product left behind after the wheat harvest has been gathered in, and around half of the world’s supply has historically gone to waste. Essity now adds wheat straw pulp to some of its consumer and professional hygiene products in a bid to reduce the company’s environmental impact.
Another recent innovation from Essity is Tork Heavy-Duty Cleaning Cloth Biobased. This is widely used in industry and is made from 99% plant-based, sustainably-sourced fibres and has been independently certified as OK Biobased by TÜV Austria.
Sometimes the way in which a disposable product is dispensed can make a huge difference to its overall sustainability. For example, industrial workshops and kitchens make heavy use of loose paper rolls which are usually left strewn on units or workbenches so that operatives can access them when they need to wipe down a surface or mop up a spill.
However, wiper rolls frequently go missing – whether because they have been borrowed, pilfered, taken for someone else’s use or left to roll on to the floor where they’ll become soiled and unusable.
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Once the operative has managed to get their hands on a wiping roll, he or she is likely to tear off a long length of paper either to save themselves from having to go back for more, or because the roll makes it all too easy to do so. Since they will be taking more paper than is required, much of it will be wasted.
Wipers are a much more useful resource when operatives know where to find them. They should also be housed in a dispenser that protects the product before use and that naturally reduces consumption. This will result in less waste, lower costs, better sustainability outcomes, and a more efficiently-run business.
For example, Tork Performance dispensers are tightly sealed, splashproof, and lockable to prevent product contamination or pilferage. They have also been designed to give out only one length of paper at a time to naturally limit consumption and provide sustainability benefits. The use of toilet tissue and disposable towels also becomes more sustainable when these products are housed in a dispenser.
In some facilities, piles of paper towels are left on the sink units for washroom users to help themselves, but this encourages people to take more towels than they need. They may also drip their wet hands on to the rest of the towels on the pile, rendering them unusable. When conventional toilet rolls or jumbo rolls are provided, these are often placed on the cistern or on the floor where they will become soiled or soggy.
These problems are easily solved by installing a unit that protects the product before use and has been designed to naturally reduce consumption. For example, the Tork SmartOne Toilet Paper Dispenser gives out one sheet of toilet tissue at a time, reducing consumption by up to 40%. The Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towel Dispenser also delivers towels singly, which means washroom visitors must make a conscious decision to take out more.
The use of paper towels becomes more sustainable than ever when they’re recycled after use. Tork PaperCircle – the world’s first recycling service for paper towels – enables businesses to reduce their environmental footprint by 40% by creating a closed loop system for used washroom hand towels. The towels are collected by Tork PaperCircle sustainability partners and taken to local recycling centres where they are turned into other tissue products.
Food businesses can also dramatically cut down on waste paper by rethinking their use of paper napkins. Many tend to be wasted because the design of the dispensers makes it difficult to withdraw a single napkin at a time. So, the customer will take out a clump of napkins and use just one or two of them, wasting the remainder.
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