THE TISSUE STORY

Tissue Makers and the Tissue Paper Products category have a Great story to tell…
It’s the TissueStory, centered on 3 key points:

Renewable Raw Materials

Tissue makers use Wood Fibers, a fantastic Renewable, Recyclable, Carbon-capturing raw material, to make highly-functional tissue paper products

Hygiene for Health

These Essential Hygiene Products vastly improve Human Health, Comfort and Lives by helping prevent the spread of dirt, disease and illness

Advanced Technology & Science

All of this is based on Advanced Technology and Science, including Chemistry, Engineering and Physics

Positively . . Promoting . . Tissue
See more aspects of the story below

Renewable Fibers

“Renewable” and “Recycled” are very hot words these days and the paper industry has been using renewable and recyclable raw materials – wood fibers – for 100s of years. The Renewable fibers used in papermaking quite literally grow on trees, and come mainly from sustainable, managed forests and tree plantations. In a few countries there is still, unfortunately, a minor portion of papermaking fibers that come from non-sustainable sources, but that percentage is decreasing all the time, thankfully.

In addition, around 35% of wood fibers being used for tissue making come from recycled paper sources like recovered office paper or packaging cartons.

Image: Seedlings before replanting in a renewable, sustainable forest >>

Trees Grow Out of Thin Air!

As strange as it might sound, almost all matter that makes up a tree comes from the air. Trees, and all photosynthesizing plants, use the energy of the sun to split atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into its components: Oxygen and Carbon.

Carbon, the primary building block of the tree – and all of life on earth, actually – then becomes carbohydrates which make up cellulose fibers. The O2 is given off by the tree, allowing us to breathe and live.

Enormous CO₂ Capture from the Atmosphere

The tree-growing process removes enormous quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to reduce climate change and greenhouse gases. When trees are young they ‘eat up’ much more CO2 than when they are older and mature. Therefore cutting mature trees and replanting the next crop of new trees is very positive for the environment.

Image: Major forest areas on the planet >>

Hygiene Benefits for better Health & Comfort

In most parts of the world a day without tissue is unthinkable. Bathroom tissue, paper towels, facial tissue and table napkins all play a critical role in hygiene, cleanliness and comfort. According to global health experts, hygiene is the Number 1 factor in human health worldwide. Tissue paper products function marvelously to promote hygiene and help prevent the spread of dirt, disease and illness.

Image: Cholera causing bacteria

Cholera Outbreak traced to Dirty Textile Kitchen Towels

Professor Hans Rosling of Sweden, arguably the world’s leading human health expert, has publicly confirmed that the last major outbreak of cholera which occurred in Chile was spread by dirty textile kitchen rags. He has further stated that paper kitchen towels might possibly have prevented it.

Similarly, independent peer-reviewed studies have shown that paper hand towels are far superior to air-blowing hand driers for preventing spread of bacteria, disease and illness.

Ultra-Light, Highly-Functional Materials . . . not commodities

Paper is often taken for granted because it is ever-present in so many parts of our life. Paper is by far the most economical and versatile substrate for printing and packaging in the world.

Tissue paper products are actually highly-engineered variants of paper, with these ultra-light sheets weighing as little as 13 grams per square meter of material. The sheet is textured, molded and surface treated to reach the optimum combination of softness and strength to give the best possible tissue products.

Image: Highly-magnified (100x approx.) cross section of structured tissue sheet>>

Big Machines, and Lots of High-Tech Science

All of this is achieved using advanced science and technology, including Chemistry, Physics and Engineering – as well as some of the biggest machines in the world. A tissue machine can be over 50 meters long, running the thin paper sheet through the process at over 2000 meters per minute or 120 km/hr.

Keep yourself up to date: Join our mailing list so we can inform you when the TissueStory.com site is live.

The page you are currently looking at is just our simple landing page to describe the TissueStory project. The actual, more complete TissueStory website will be going live in a couple months. We will notify you when it is live if you simply fill in the following contact form.

Why are we doing this?
Tissue makers can be proud – The TissueStory is a very positive one. So far, though, we have not been telling the story very well. In fact, we have mostly been either on the defensive or complacent on many of these questions.

Now, we can positively change this. This will involve 2 steps: 1st, by making sure everyone working in the tissue business knows these facts well, to be Ambassadors of the messages – and then, Next, the 2nd Step is to bring these positive messages to the world through various channels. This can add significant value and appreciation to the tissue category by positioning the tissue products ‘brand’ more honestly.

Please fill in this simple contact form to get on our mailing list, so we can notify you when the site is live. Of course we respect your privacy – you can unsubscribe at any time.

Hugh O’Brian

The TissueStory is being coordinated and launched by Hugh O’Brian. He has solid qualifications based on more than 30 years’ experience as a Papermaker, a paper industry Technical Journalist, and the creator and founder of the Tissue World conference and exhibition series.

He holds Master and Bachelor degrees in Paper Technology and Applied Engineering from Wisconsin and Syracuse, respectively, in the USA. He has worked in paper mills and research centers in both the USA and Europe.