Sustainability
In case you have any questions about our products and what’s in them, we’ve collected some answers for you. As every situation is unique, please get in touch with us if you want to know more.
Absolutely. Sustainability is an essential priority for each of our brands here at Essity. We’re committed to developing products and services that improve human well-being while also lowering our environmental footprint. Using recycled materials in our products is a great way to do that. For example, we use more than 40% recycled fibers in our global tissue production.
At Essity, we are also continually finding new ways to get “more from less” with thinner or compressed products that function even better while using less material and producing less waste.
Ultimately, it’s our ambition to contribute to a circular society. That means exploring new designs, using renewable and recycled materials and innovating ways to make our products and packaging more reusable and recyclable.
At Essity we recognize the existing long-term uncertainties regarding environmental and health risks concerning the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). That’s why we take a precautionary approach to using materials that derive from GMOs.
If you would like to know more, please see Essity's GMO position.
No materials in Essity hygiene products are bleached using chlorine gas (elemental chlorine). Elemental chlorine is probably what you’ve heard bad things about.
The bleaching methods we accept (for our cellulose pulp and viscose fibers) are the ECF (elemental chlorine free) method and TCF (totally chlorine free) method, considered by the European Industrial Emissions Directive to be the best available techniques. Both methods have a low environmental impact, as they are based on modern and efficient processes, and use effective wastewater treatment. Additionally, both are also safe with regard to any traces of unwanted chemicals.
We’re concerned about that too and consequently, we only use plastics in our products and packaging where it is necessary for the purpose of guaranteeing that the products are not only clean but also safe to use and fulfill the hygienic purpose for which they have been manufactured. Additionally, we’re continually finding ways to use less and less material in our products, including plastics, while also increasing our use of renewable or recycled plastics. One example of this is our optimized use of stretch film, which has allowed us to reduce the usage of plastics at our European tissue sites.
Essity is an active member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's plastics initiative “New Plastic Economy.” Our goal is to achieve 100% recyclability for all our packaging, and we’ve already committed to the ambitious target of manufacturing 85% of our packaging from renewable or recycled material by 2025.
In principle our products don’t contain substances that directly originate from animals. However, we can’t really make the claim of “vegan” for our products. This is because the supply chain for our products is complex, and we can’t guarantee that others further up the chain haven’t come into contact with animal-based materials.
Our plastic bottles are made out of polyethylene, in several different grades (both bottles, pump, valve and cap). Bisphenol A is prohibited by the Essity Global Supplier Standard from being intentionally added to any of our raw materials, and we don’t add it during the production process. So, no – Bisphenol A is not something you need to worry about in our bottles.