P&G scorecard is jump-starting new projects
Procter & Gamble is extending the use of its Environmental Sustainability Supplier Scorecard to around 600 of its suppliers and agencies. For 2011, the company has upgraded the scorecard – designed to track and encourage improvement on key environmental sustainability measures in its supply chain – following its initial use for a year. The first indications are that most suppliers are able to track the requested key sustainability measures and that the process of innovation sharing is proving productive.
Following its acquisition in May of Tubex – the largest European producer of tree shelters which dramatically improve the survival and growth rates of broadleaf saplings and vines – Fiberweb is investing €6 million in a new geotextile line.
3M is currently reviewing more than 80% of its supplier spending in China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Turkey as part of its new sustainability goals.
By coincidence, all three speakers at the recent Nonwovens Network UK seminar held in Bradford, West Yorkshire, cited advanced incineration as the most effective method for the disposal of nonwoven-based consumer hygiene products in West Europe.
In its first annual sustainability report published for the year 2010, Ahsltrom discloses that 82% of the fibres it employed came from renewable sources.
A problem for some nonwovens has, in the past, been web uniformity. George Kellie, director of KellieSolutions and Sustainable Nonwovens editorial advisor explains how this is rapidly changing. “Sustainability has to be at the heart of the strategies of all major material producers as we face a world with rising CO2 levels and scarce raw material resources,” he says. “The nonwovens industry is well equipped to take on these challenges and we are seeing the appearance of webs made from bioplastics and natural fibres. These are important changes, but in the real world the greatest change that can made is through progressive lightweighting. Hence our motto – light is good.
US Pacific Nonwovens is currently completing work on the development of spunbond and meltblown fabrics from blends of temperature-compatible grades of PLA and PHB polymers. The company believes that products made from such biodegradable polymer blends – such as surgical drapes and gowns, face masks, head and shoe covers and patient lifting slings – will benefit greatly from improved shelf-life in clean storage.
In 2011, Ying Yang is without doubt the largest manufacturer of nonwovens machinery in the world.
The growing home and remote health care market promises to strip away many of the current costs and wasteful practices associated with medical treatment, while enhancing the quality of life for many people.
