Kimberley-Clark to develop tissue products made with bamboo fiber

Booshoot, a biotechnology company focused on bamboo forestry, agriculture and nursery wholesale, and Kimberly-Clark, recently announced an important development agreement that will enable Kimberly-Clark to explore the manufacturing of tissue products containing fiber derived from Booshoot's proprietary bamboo propagation technology. The partnership marks a significant breakthrough for the tissue industry and the planet, as the companies will work together to develop high-yield fiber alternatives that can be grown domestically on a mass agricultural scale in environmentally and socially responsible ways. Under the agreement, Booshoot will deliver tens of thousands of bamboo starts to be grown in Kimberly-Clark pilot projects. The trials are designed to prove the viability of several species of giant bamboos, including 'Moso' (Phyllostachys edulis), as a scalable and sustainable tree fiber alternatives. Where conventional Northern Softwood trees take 60 or more years to reach harvestable maturity, Moso grows close to 100 feet tall and is harvestable in less than a decade, producing several times the fiber of traditional timber, and capturing four times the carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) of most trees. "We are pleased to be working with such an established global leader in the tissue industry, and to play a role helping Kimberly-Clark meet their ambitious environmental targets," said Booshoot CEO Jackie Heinricher. "Booshoot has the proven science and production capacity required to eventually produce millions of bamboo plants annually, which will play a critical part in reducing the world's dependence on native forests." "As a leader in bamboo technology, Booshoot is well positioned to support Kimberly-Clark's objective to develop sustainable fiber alternatives and take them to commercial scale," said Gordon Knapp, President of North American Consumer Tissue for Kimberly-Clark. "Introducing alternatives to natural forest fiber to our supply chain is important to our goals associated with responsible fiber sourcing as well as our goals to improve management of input cost risk and variability." In 2011 Kimberly-Clark used nearly 750 thousand metric tons of primary wood fiber sourced from natural forests. The agreement with Booshoot is designed to help Kimberly-Clark meet its pledge to cut the amount of natural forest fiber in half by the year 2025, an amount equivalent to the fiber used to manufacture over three billion rolls of toilet paper. Booshoot's patent-pending bamboo are "true to type" species that are not genetically modified, producing more biomass on less land, in less time than other traditional forest products. In addition to providing fiber for the paper industry, bamboo from Booshoot is an ideal raw material for everything from textiles to biofuels to building materials.