The Issue with Tissue
Shining a spotlight on the forest, climate, and human rights harms behind major U.S. tissue brands and helping consumers embrace sustainable alternatives.
Since 2019, NRDC’s The Issue with Tissue series has exposed how America’s largest tissue manufacturers are failing communities, biodiversity, and the climate by creating single-use, throwaway products from critical forests like the Canadian boreal. These annual scorecards grade major toilet paper, paper towel, and facial tissue brands based on their sustainability and provide consumers with a powerful tool for selecting eco-friendly options, such as products made from recycled content and responsibly sourced bamboo.
Throughout this series, the marketplace has shown meaningful signs of shifting toward more sustainable sourcing. In 2024, Kimberly-Clark—the maker of Cottonelle, Kleenex, and Scott tissue products—became the first major U.S. tissue manufacturer to establish concrete commitments to eliminating deforestation and reducing the impact of natural forest degradation across its supply chains. That same year, Georgia-Pacific further signaled growing momentum toward responsible alternatives with the relaunch of its Aria toilet paper line as 100 percent recycled content, replacing its previous forest-fiber version. Procter & Gamble has shown uneven progress with products like Charmin Ultra Bamboo earning a B grade, while its flagship tissue brands still receive failing grades for their continued reliance on forest fiber and lack of action on forest degradation. Despite these improvements, and the dozens of smaller companies embracing alternatives to the “tree-to-toilet pipeline,” many of the most popular U.S. tissue brands continue to drive devastating impacts to forests while exposing communities to severe environmental and human rights harms.
The Issue with Tissue Eighth Edition
NRDC released The Issue with Tissue Eighth Edition in 2026, which shows that better tissue products are no longer the exception. Brands made with recycled and alternative fibers continue to outperform conventional products, proving that sustainable choices can thrive in the marketplace. Yet many tissue products on the market still depend heavily on forest fiber, contributing to forest degradation, climate pollution, and harms to frontline communities.
For the first time, the scorecard methodology also evaluates human rights risks in tissue supply chains, recognizing that environmental harms and human rights harms are often deeply interconnected. This new assessment identified several private-label products sold by Costco (Kirkland Signature) and Walmart (Great Value and Member's Mark) as being high risk for associated human rights abuses that are linked to the ongoing mercury crisis affecting the Grassy Narrows First Nation. The findings underscore the need for greater transparency, traceability, and accountability across tissue supply chains.
Our planet cannot wait while the world’s largest companies take half measures or deflect responsibility. As major consumers of wood pulp from the Canadian boreal, U.S. tissue companies must adopt new practices that align with the preservation of this vital forest, respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and foster a safe, sustainable future. More than ever, consumers want their products to reflect their values. Investors are urging companies to avoid forest degradation and related human rights risks in their supply chains. Tissue companies must evolve with the times and embrace transformative, forest- and climate-friendly innovation if they want to stay competitive in an increasingly sustainability-conscious marketplace.
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Wabakimi Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, September 2025
Previous editions & fact sheets
In 2025, NRDC released The Issue with Tissue Seventh Edition scorecard, which features an updated methodology and more products than ever before. For the first time in this series, Procter & Gamble (P&G) broke out of the F grade category with its Charmin Ultra Bamboo toilet paper landing a B score. While this product is a step in the right direction, P&G’s flagship tissue brands—including Bounty, Charmin, and Puffs—continued to receive F grades for relying almost exclusively on forest fiber.
In 2024, NRDC released The Issue with Tissue Sixth Edition scorecard, which, for the first time, documented movement by P&G’s closest tissue competitors, Kimberly-Clark and Georgia-Pacific, toward enhanced sustainability that left P&G behind the pack.
Released in 2023, NRDC’s The Issue with Tissue Fifth Edition report and scorecard highlighted a marketplace in continued transition and the rapid rise of sustainable tissue brands that have embraced solutions to halt the tree-to-toilet pipeline and answer consumers’ calls for more eco-friendly options.
Published in 2022, the fourth-edition scorecard underscored the scientific urgency of protecting the world’s remaining primary and older forests. The updated scorecard also unveiled more sustainable tissue product options than ever before, even as P&G, Kimberly-Clark, and Georgia-Pacific continued to receive F grades for each of their flagship brands.
The third-edition scorecard, released in 2021, introduced a new scoring criterion for avoiding sourcing from primary forests, which are areas that have never before been industrially logged. It also established a methodology for evaluating bamboo-based tissue products, reflecting the growing role of this alternative fiber in the U.S. tissue industry.
In 2020, NRDC published The Issue with Tissue Second Edition, which updated the 2019 report to reflect new scientific information and changes in the tissue industry landscape. The reissued scorecard also integrated new brands, new data, and an updated methodology.
In 2019, NRDC and Stand.earth published the first report and scorecard in this series, The Issue with Tissue: How Americans Are Flushing Forests Down the Toilet, which shined a spotlight on the link between major U.S. tissue product manufacturers and the destruction of one of the most ecologically important forests in the world, the boreal forest of Canada. It also included a scorecard for consumers, ranking major toilet paper, paper towel, and facial tissue brands on their sustainability for forests and the climate.
In 2019, NRDC published this fact sheet to answer frequently asked questions about toilet paper, consumption habits, sustainable alternatives, and more.
This 2020 NRDC fact sheet breaks down a series of greenwashing myths used by P&G to hide the devastating impacts of its tissue brands like Charmin on the world’s last intact forests and the global climate.
Tell Costco and Walmart to come clean on toilet paper
Two of Costco's and Walmart's paper products earned an F on NRDC's sustainability scorecard. But on top of that, the retailers refuse to say whether they profit from using a Canadian pulp mill that relies on the clearcutting of wildlife-rich, climate-critical forests, and that is actively worsening a mercury poisoning crisis.
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