Grocers Drop Paper Product at WWF Urging

WASHINGTON — Bi-Lo, Brookshire Grocery Co., Delhaize Group, Harris Teeter, Kmart, Kroger, Supervalu, IGA and Weis Markets have stopped carrying tissue products made with fiber from Asia Pulp & Paper due to its link to destruction of Indonesian rainforests and tiger habitats, according to a World Wildlife Fund report. 

APP distributes its tissue, paper and paper-based packaging products through Solaris Paper, Mercury Paper, Paper Excellence, Global Paper Solutions and Eagle Ridge Paper. Paseo and Livi tissue products are produced with pulp from APP.

WWF contacted the 20 grocers sourcing the largest amounts of Paseo products, 11 did not respond or commit to ceasing Paseo sales. They are Albertsons LLC, Giant Eagle, Hy-Vee, Ingles, K-VA-T, Lowes Food Stores, Marsh, Price Chopper, Roundy’s, Save Mart and Spartan.

Since it began operating in Indonesia in 1984, WWF estimates that APP and its affiliates have cleared nearly five million acres of tropical forest on the island of Sumatra.