Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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Tork Paper Circle from Essity wins Visitor's Choice Award
The visitor's choice prize is awarded to the nominee voted as the most innovative by Interclean Amsterdam visitors. With 39% percent of the votes, Tork Paper Circle from Essity is the winner of the Visitor's Choice Award 2018.
Tork PaperCircle is turning the hand drying business on its head by offering the world's first paper hand towel recycling service, helping businesses go circular, cutting the carbon footprint of paper hand towels by 40% and paving the way for future change in standards on what can be recycled and included as accepted paper grades.
Using behavioural science, Essity has reached 22,500 washroom users, raising awareness about recycling and ensuring that used hand towels are correctly sorted. Together with its partners, Essity collects and transports used hand towels to local mills where existing production lines are used to recycle them.
Essity has developed nudging and communication concepts to get end users to throw hand towels in separate bins, and training material to educate cleaners about the importance of recycling and how to efficiently carry out their services.
But this isn't the only award this innovation has won: in October 2017, the service was recognised at the European Paper Recycling Awards in the European Parliament.
Tork PaperCircle was nominated as one of four finalists in the Information & Education category of the Awards. The award recognises projects, initiatives and campaigns that contribute to Europe's sustainability through activities supporting paper recycling.
The circular economy is becoming more and more important for companies worldwide. Drivers are both increased consumer awareness and government initiatives like the EU Circular Economy package. Companies both need to step up their work, and to communicate their efforts. The unique service is the latest of Essity's efforts to go circular, as part of the overall business strategy.
"Tork PaperCircle is a great example of how we lead the way toward a circular economy for professional hygiene together with our customers, says Kersti Strandqvist (pictured), senior vice president, Group Sustainability, Essity.
"That's why Essity has developed Tork PaperCircle, helping businesses close the loop by recycling their hand towels into new tissue products. The service is a complete solution to reduce waste and cut the carbon footprint by 40 %. Customers can make an important statement to employees and visitors through recycling statistics and creative communications in the washroom."
17th May 2018