APP Exposed! FSC won't certify them

This finally blows Woolworths right out of the water!

Here is a story from the Wall Street Journal that shows the world's most credentialed forestry authority saying APP doesn’t have sustainable products, and that they can't use the FSC logo.

In essence they are saying that APP's pulp and paper come from UNSUSTAINABLE sources - this backs up what i've been saying in this blog for the past 3 months.

Woolworths is again selling the toilet paper from China, still WITH the “sustainable forest fibre” logo. Again Woolworths is misleading consumers.

All of Woolworths’ claims that they will look into APP’s sourcing of paper and pulp are just stalling tactics.

Here's the first bit of the story - click on the link to see the whole thing.

FSC's 'Green' Label for Wood Products Gets Growing Pains By Tom Wright and Jim Carlton

30 October 2007

The Wall Street Journal

The environmental group that runs a widely recognized labeling system to identify "green" wood and paper products has acknowledged that some companies using its label are destroying pristine forests and says it plans to overhaul its rules.

The admission by the Forest Stewardship Council, based in Bonn, threatens the credibility of an organization whose tree-with-a-check-mark logo adorns products for sale at big retailers including Home Depot Inc., Lowe's Cos. and Ikea AB.

Some environmentalists have long complained the FSC's rules are too lax.

A catalyst for the group's move to tighten its standard came earlier this month when it emerged that Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd. -- one of the largest paper companies in the developing world and a target of criticism for its forestry practices -- planned to start using the FSC logo. The FSC has also faced questions about companies in other parts of the world that use its logo.

Labor pledges a crackdown on illegal timber imports – what on earth will Woolworths and Safeway do?

Today The Australian newspaper has a story on page 5 about the Labor party pledging to crackdown on illegal timber imports into Australia if they win the election.

Forestry and Conservation Minister for the Liberal Government, Eric Abetz, admits that “10 per cent of Australia’s timber imports were sourced illegally”.

HOWEVER, he goes on to say that “to ban illegal imports would actually mean banning most timber imports” – meaning most of the stuff that comes into Australia now is actually illegally logged! Of course this must include the illegally logged products that Woolworths imports from APP.

What I want to know if the Labor party is elected, will proposed crackdown apply to timber-derived products that come into the country too, like paper and paper pulp. If it does, then maybe this is what will finally force Woolworths to stop using illegally logged pulp products imported from Asia in their own Select brand toilet paper, tissues and paper towel.

What Woolworths (Safeway) is doing is ethically wrong! We need to keep telling them that they can’t do this in Australia! Go here to tell them what you think, or email me (sustainable55 at hotmail . com) and tell me what you think about it. Let me know what you think of the blog too.

Here is the article from today’s paper.

Waiting and watching to see what Woolworths and Luscombe do

I was looking over what Michael Luscombe who’s the CEO of Woolworths, looking at what he said last week, and I’m really worried that this is not the end of the problem.

If you look carefully what he said, you’ll see he is leaving plenty of room (semantics, weasel words, call it what you will) so that Woolworths can go away, put new labels on the old product, and use new packaging to put the same old products back on the shelves. The fact that the packaging doesn’t say it’s environmentally friendly doesn’t make the logging of old growth forests and the bullying tactics used by Woolworths’ supplier, in any way acceptable, at all.

That sort of action is totally contemptuous of the public and of ethical practice. If the products come from a suspect company then it doesn’t matter if you change the packaging!

We must remain vigilant - we can’t let Woolworths get away with such fraud. These products should never be put back on the shelves until we can all independently verify that they come from sustainable plantations.

We can’t trust Woolworths to tell us the truth and I don’t want them to get away with putting the products on sale again under new packaging.

Keep contacting Woolworths on the numbers in other posts to tell them you won’t let them get away with treating customers like idiots and destroying forests and habitat in China and Indonesia.