Kimberly-Clark Professional Partners with US Composting Council and Keep America Beautiful to Create Workplace Composting Guide

News provided by

Apr 19, 2016, 11:15 ET

ROSWELL, Ga., April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark Professional, the US Composting Council (USCC) and Keep America Beautiful have introduced a free Guide to Workplace Composting to help organizations develop workplace composting programs that support sustainability, waste reduction and zero waste initiatives.

The guide provides step-by-step instructions and resources to help office buildings, manufacturing facilities, hotels, hospitals, universities and other workplaces divert organic matter – such as food scraps, used paper towels, coffee grounds and coffee filters – from landfills through composting. Composting is a landfill-free way of using decomposed organic materials to fertilize and condition soil. Compost also can reduce erosion, improve drought tolerance and help reduce the generation of greenhouse gases.

"Composting closes the loop," said Frank Franciosi, executive director of the US Composting Council. "It increases organic matter in the soil to grow plants, trees and crops. It's a holistic approach that puts carbon back where it came from."

Food waste is the single largest component of disposed municipal solid waste and accounts for a significant portion of U.S. methane emissions, and landfills are the third largest source of methane in the United States.

In September 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the country's first-ever national food waste reduction goal, calling for a 50 percent reduction by 2030. A number of states, including California, Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut, have initiated bans on landfill disposal of food waste from large commercial food waste generators.

A guide for the workplace
Kimberly-Clark Professional decided to create a workplace composting guide for customers who wanted to compost its paper towels, but needed help getting started.

"We're very proud to have partnered with the US Composting Council and Keep America Beautiful to address some of the challenges that workplaces face in creating composting programs," said Ben Jarrett, North America sustainability leader, Kimberly-Clark Professional. "It's not hard to do. It just takes some time and planning."

For Keep America Beautiful, which has a Recycling@Work initiative to support workplace efforts to reduce waste and improve recycling, the collaboration resulted in "a great resource for those workplaces that are ready to add organics to their recycling programs," said Brenda Pulley, the organization's senior vice president for recycling.

"Composting is the natural, next step for implementing a 'reduce, reuse, recycle' strategy to give our garbage another life. We want to make it easy for workplaces to implement an effective program, which is why it's so important to support them with the right tools and resources," added Pulley.

100 percent compostable towels
Every Kimberly-Clark Professional paper towel can be diverted from landfill via composting. Before developing the guide, Kimberly-Clark Professional conducted a composting test of its Kleenex and Scott brand towels at its Roswell, Ga., headquarters. During an initial four-week period, it diverted 2,500 pounds of paper towel waste from 50 restrooms. The compost passed the US Composting Council Seal of Testing Assurance Program tests, indicating that it was suitable for use.

"Our success demonstrates that towel composting programs can be implemented at customer locations, enabling us to provide another solution to improve overall sustainability and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill," Jarrett said.

To obtain a copy of "A Guide to Workplace Composting," visit http://www.kcprofessional.com/media/225975188/A_Guide_to_Workplace_Composting.pdf.

Kimberly-Clark Professional has a long history of innovation and environmental leadership, and has been recognized by leading environmental non-governmental organizations for its efforts. In 2015, it became the first major manufacturer in North America to produce bath tissue and towel products incorporating domestically sourced non-wood fiber. It also was the first away-from-home towel and tissue products company in North America to obtain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for a broad range of towel and tissue products, and currently holds the largest portfolio of FSC-certified towel and tissue products in North America. To learn more about Kimberly-Clark's global sustainability efforts, visit http://sustainabilityreport2022.kimberly-clark.com/.

About the US Composting Council
Established in 1990, the US Composting Council (USCC) is the only national organization in the United States dedicated to the development, expansion and promotion of the composting industry. The USCC achieves this mission by encouraging, supporting and performing compost related research, promoting best management practices, establishing standards, educating professionals and the public about the benefits of composting and compost utilization, enhancing compost product quality, and developing training materials for composters and markets for compost products. USCC members include compost producers, marketers, equipment manufacturers, product suppliers, academic institutions, public agencies, nonprofit groups and consulting/engineering firms. The USCC is a non-profit 501(c) (6) organization that also directs the Composting Council Research and Education Foundation (CCREF), a 501(c) (3) charitable foundation, which administers public and private research and education activities. For more information, visit www.compostingcouncil.org.

About Keep America Beautiful
At Keep America Beautiful, we want to ensure that beauty is our lasting signature. A leading national nonprofit, Keep America Beautiful inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. We envision a country where every community is a clean, green, and beautiful place to live. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful provides the expertise, programs and resources to help people end littering, improve recycling, and beautify America's communities. The organization is driven by the work and passion of more than 600 community-based Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the support of corporate partners, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals. To learn how you can donate or take action, visit kab.org. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook, or view us on YouTube.

About Kimberly-Clark Professional
Kimberly-Clark Professional partners with businesses to create Exceptional Workplaces, helping to make them healthier, safer and more productive. Key brands in this segment include: Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech and Jackson Safety. Kimberly-Clark Professional, located in Roswell, Georgia, is one of three Kimberly-Clark business sectors. To see how Kimberly-Clark Professional is helping people around the world to work better, please visit www.kcprofessional.com.

About Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Every day, nearly a quarter of the world's population trust Kimberly-Clark's brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in 80 countries. To keep up with the latest news and to learn more about the Company's 144-year history of innovation, visit www.kimberly-clark.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

[KMB-B]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160401/350484LOGO

SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Professional