Fed: Woolworths withdraws own brand tissues over green claims

AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2007
Fed: Woolworths withdraws own brand tissues over green claims

By Peter Williams

CANBERRA, Aug 27 AAP - Supermarket giant Woolworths has pulled its own brand of imported
Indonesian tissue products from shelves over allegations their packaging makes misleading
environmental claims.

The forestry union has called on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
(ACCC) to investigate claims production of the Woolworths Select tissue and toilet paper
degraded the environment while being labelled as sustainable.

Woolworths chief executive Michael Luscombe today said the products sourced from Asia
Pulp and Paper had been withdrawn from retail outlets.

"We'll work on how we withdraw those claims from the packaging in the short term before
we put them back into circulation," Mr Luscombe told reporters in Melbourne.

The packaging had said the products were sourced from "sustainable forest fibre from
an environmentally responsible company".

However, green groups say no Indonesian company has ever received such accreditation
from internationally recognised bodies.

Mr Luscombe said Woolworths had asked the environmental group WWF to act as an auditor
in checking Asia Pulp and Paper's claims and is waiting for the findings.

He had also contacted ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel to inform him of the company's actions.

"I rang Graeme on the weekend to tell him that we'd decided to voluntarily take it
off the shelf," Mr Luscombe said.

"He clearly thought that there was room to maybe not do that, but we said that we think
the responsible thing to do to is actually take it off the shelf while there was still
doubt."

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said it had referred the
matter to the ACCC today after the company last week failed to satisfactorily respond
to the union's concerns.

"Last week, Woolworths itself conceded it could not verify the sustainability claims
on its packaging for the Woolworths Select range of tissue products made for it by Asia
Pulp and Paper," national secretary John Sutton said.

"It's pretty poor form to be using these cheap Asian products where workers are exploited,
the environment's degraded, but then covering it all up with these bogus slogans claiming
it's sustainable and environmentally friendly," he told the ABC.

AAP pw/sb/jt/cdh

KEYWORD: WOOLWORTHS TISSUES

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