Laboratory testing of Kmart’s Indonesian-made “Office One” home brand envelopes shows they contained 19 per cent mixed tropical hardwood fibre, sourced from rainforest.
The lab analysis, commissioned from US lab IPS by environment group Markets for Change, comes amid an increasingly bitter debate about Indonesian forest practices, which has led Australian retailers including IGA and Officeworks to stop supplies from manufacturers of paper products including giants Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd (APRIL) and Asia Pulp and Paper (APP).
Kmart’s Office One copy papers are made in China but its home brand envelopes are made in Indonesia, although the manufacturer is not identified on the packaging.
On Sunday, the Herald bought packs of size DL, C4 and C5 Indonesian-made Office One envelopes at Kmart’s Eastgardens store, paying $1, $3 and $4 respectively.
Environment groups are resorting to fibre analysis to cut through greenwash claims by manufacturers and retailers.
Wesfarmers annual report released last week said Kmart’s Ethical Sourcing Program was under review and the retailer would “continue to focus its attention on sustainable purchasing which includes sourcing ethically, supplier collaboration, meeting compliance standards, reputation management and process and reporting system improvements”.
A Kmart spokesperson yesterday was surprised at the IPS laboratory findings and said the company would “take the matter extremely seriously and begin an immediate investigation”.
On Friday, Indonesia’s secretary-general of the forestry ministry, Hadi Daryanto, attended a conference in Sydney organised to counter environmental campaigns targeting the country’s forest industries.
The conference, also attended by Indonesian ambassador Primo Joelianto and former deputy prime minister John Anderson, heard deforestation was slowing as Indonesia had decreed a two-year moratorium on logging in 89 million hectares of primary forest and peatland, prevented fires and established a Timber Legality Assurance System, as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26 per cent by 2020.
Mr Daryanto said deforestation dropped from 2.83 million hectares a year between 1997-2000, to 1.08 million hectares a year between 2000-2006 - and were at that level last year.
However Greenpeace Indonesia campaigner Bustar Maitar said the official data were inconsistent and inaccurate and its own analysis indicated deforestation was continuing at 2.1 million hectares a year.
In July, IGA stopped supplies of Black and Gold toilet paper made by APP after Greenpeace posted footage of the death of a Sumatran tiger trapped near an APP logging operation.
APP subsidiary Solaris launched an advertising campaign to defend its reputation but was forced into a humiliating apology after media website Mumbrella exposed Solaris employees making personal attacks on Greenpeace campaigner Reece Turner in anonymous comments posted on Mumbrella’s website.
Wesfarmer’s Officeworks chain recently cancelled contracts for the supply of APRIL’s Paper One copy paper, after lab testing by Markets for Change found 84 per cent of the fibres it contained were from mixed tropical hardwood species.
Mr Turner said Friday’s conference was a “sign of real desperation”.
While the government was trying, he said: “Behind the scenes, companies like APP are fighting as hard as they can to have the moratorium and legality system watered down.”
