Liz Gyekye / PackagingNews

APP refutes Greenpeace’s Indonesian rainforest claim

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has claimed that Greenpeace has made false allegations against it and has misled the toy industry on its ‘Indonesian rainforest’ claim.

In June, Greenpeace launched an environmental campaign against toy makers that used APP’s paper. Greenpeace claimed that APP uses wood from virgin rainforests that is contributing to the destruction of Indonesian forests.

In the wake of this campaign, toy giants Mattel, Lego, and Hasbro announced new paper-buying policies.

‘No scientific basis’

APP has, now, claimed that Greenpeace has no scientific basis for its claim. It said that Greenpeace employed a US-based paper testing company, Integrated Paper Services (IPS), to conduct fibre tests on APP toy packaging in North America and tissue products in New Zealand.

In a letter to APP dated 25 October, Bruce Shafer, chief executive of Integrated Paper Services, made this comment on the sample tests which were commissioned by Greenpeace:

“IPS is only able to determine the types of fibres present in such samples. We have not, and are unable to identify country of origin of the samples.

“This type of assertion would need to be based on data outside of our findings. Therefore we are unable to comment on the credibility of the statements Greenpeace has made regarding country of origin.”

‘Mixed tropical hardwood’

Shafer added that “some elements of mixed tropical hardwood” (vessels, not fibres) were found in the samples and that IPS stood by that finding.

Greenpeace claims that the research reveals that the consistent presence of MTH (also known as rainforest fibre) feature in a range of product categories, including toy sector packaging.

APP said that IPS did not conduct any tests to determine whether the samples were actually fibres from recycled material.

APP managing director Aida Greenbury said: “Greenpeace based its entire global campaign against APP on a single premise: it had commissioned tests which proved that APP products contained Indonesian rainforest fibre.

“The company Greenpeace asked to carry out the tests has admitted this claim cannot be justified.

“If there were any MTH materials in the packaging, it is highly likely (95%) that they came from recycled material. Or they came from a sustainably managed forest in another part of the world, for example South America.”

APP manager of European sustainability Liz Wilkes told PN that Greenpeace had made “unfounded allegations”. She added: “How can they assume that the sources were from APP? This could have come from any manufacturer in the world.”

‘PR-driven nonsense’

In response to APP’s statement, a Greenpeace spokesman said: “This is nothing but PR-driven nonsense by APP, the world’s most notorious rainforest destroyer. The company’s own documentation confirms that it continues to rely on the use of Indonesian rainforest fibre for use in its mills and products.

“Yet rather than dealing with this issue, APP appears set to continue to destroy Indonesia’s rainforests for throwaway paper products whilst trying to cover its tracks.  These pointless attempts to distract from the real issues are tantamount to committing commercial suicide in the international market.

“It’s also worth noting that these allegations are being made by a company found guilty just last week in the Netherlands  of making misleading claims in its adverts.”

In response to this, an APP spokesman said: “The ads that are being discussed were part of APP’s global sustainability campaign to educate our global stakeholders, which have completed their campaign period last September.

“We wish to point out that in order to ensure the compliance with both formal and ethical requirements APP has presented the materials in question to the Monitoring & Compliance Department of the Dutch Advertising Authority prior to broadcasting and received pre-approval.”