Greenpeace has reiterated calls for New Zealanders to boycott Cottonsoft toilet rolls as it releases fresh evidence its products contain Indonesian rainforest fibres.
The pulp and paper company and conservation group have been warring for weeks over conflicting claims on the contents of Cottonsoft's toilet paper, the second most popular brand in Kiwi supermarkets.
Greenpeace produced evidence from testing lab IPS Global that the toilet tissue contained rainforest fibres, and concluded the wood had been logged from Indonesian rainforests, home to the threatened Sumatran tiger.
Cottonsoft's parent company, Indonesian paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), rebutted the allegation, saying its products are made from Asian plantation sources considered "standard pulpwood plantation species".
It accused the environmental group of damaging its brand and threatening the jobs of its 130 employees in Auckland and Dunedin plants, and said even IPS itself had admitted its findings were "baseless".
But Greenpeace is fighting back, releasing new results from Germany's Institute of Paper Science and Technology that it says proves the accuracy of earlier tests.
It challenged the claim IPS had disowned its results with a letter saying its results were indisputable.
Greenpeace NZ executive director Bunny McDiarmid said the findings prove the company has been caught red-handed with a supply chain contaminated with rainforest fibre.
She urged Kiwi companies and consumers to boycott the brand by not working with or purchasing Cottonsoft products.
"It's time for APP/Cottonsoft to clean up their act and give people what they want - toilet roll that doesn't trash the rainforests," McDiarmid said.
Cottonsoft was once New Zealand-owned but was bought out in 2007 by APP, the world's fifth largest paper manufacturer.
NZN