Buying friendlier products every day.

[bluestate10]

A post by a member earlier this week made me realize that three of the products that I have been a loyal consumer of are made by Koch brothers affiliated companies. I set out to change brands but was unsure of what I could replace the two products with. This post is a report. I switched from Kleenex facial tissues to Puffs facial tissues, not a home run because Puffs are made by Procter&Gamble, but I gave up Kleenex and sending my money to the Kochs. Better luck was had when I changed my napkins from the Koch brand Vanity Fair to napkins made by a company named "MARCAL Small Steps". Marcal makes napkins, toilet paper, facial tissue and paper towels from 100% recycled paper. I have not tried the napkins yet and they are smaller than the Vanity Fair napkins, but the look and feel of the napkins through the package was good. I switched toilet paper brands from the Koch brand Quilted Northern to Marcal toilet paper. I wanted to find out more about Marcal after getting home. The company manufacturers in the USA and appears to be deeply involved in making the environment healthier. The company's website is "marcalsmallsteps.com" if you want to get yourself, the website says that the company has Facebook and Twitter pages, I am not into either, so I limited my investigation to the company website. I also bough a toilet paper brand called "Full Circle" that is also made from 100% recycled, 80% post consumer paper. Full Circle also offers a line of napkins, facial napkins and paper towels, I only bought the toilet paper. I tried web searches on Full Circle, but could only find the the brand is distributed by a company named Topco Associates LLC out of Skowkie, Ill. Topco is a cooperative that is owned by small to medium sized grocery chains, it seems to be into providing cost effective products and has a big environment friendly line of products, but the company also distributes cigarettes. I looked at a brand in my grocery store called "Seventhgeneration" but did not buy any of it's products, that was a mistake. I did research on Seventhgeneration once I got back home, the company is a deeply environmentally conscious company and sells a range of products made from recycled paper. The Seventhgeneration products that I saw are facial napkins, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins. The Seventhgeneration products appear to be made in the USA.

In a related shout-out, I purchased 80% bamboo, 20% recycled polypro 11x11 inch towels from a company called Bamboosa. I have yet to use the towels, but know that bamboo is infinitely more environment friendly than cotton as long as the supplier avoid bamboo fiber suppliers that use the type of bamboo that pandas eat and avoid bamboo fiber suppliers that use a process that makes fibers using a large amount of toxic chemicals. I checked Bamboosa out before I made the purchase and saw that the company use environmentally, panda friendly bamboo fiber, and manufacturers it's towels in the USA.

[Lifelong Protester]

1. I use 7th generation cleaning supplies. The facial tissue

is pretty rough, though.
Do you mean that Kleenex brand prouducts are a Koch affiliate? How about Charmin?

Thanks!

[bluestate10]

4. Another member did the research on Kleenex. I do not know much about Charmin.

I did research on Quilted Northern, it is made by Georgia-Pacific. The Kochs own brands that don't have their name attached.
When I made my changes I wanted to go with companies that made products that are made from recycled or environment friendly raw materials. Maybe I was a bit cynical, but I doubt Koch companies would meet either criteria.
I am disappointed about your input on 7th generation facial tissues. The roughness means that I can't use them even for five wipes of my nose. My nose skin is delicate and will tear easily. Kleenex was a good brand for me, but my estimate is that Puffs will be as good. I will stay on the lookout for a replacement for Puffs, I want to give the Marcal facial tissues a test try.
My toilet paper choice is set, it will be one of the environmentally friendly brands, starting this day.

[bluestate10]

6. Charmin is made by Proctor&Gamble, it is ok.

Products by Kimberly-Clark compete against Koch products, so they are ok. But buy products from smaller environment friendly companies if at all possible.

MORE Information of Koch Ind and Related Koch companies:

The company website address is "http://www.kochind.com /"

Factoids:
Koch carries a lot of public debt via it's acquisition of Georgia-Pacific. Since the debt is public, the bonds can be purchased by unfriendly hands, forcing the Kochs' to spend company funds to get control of the bonds.

The two problem Koch brothers are at war with one brother in particular, Bill Koch. Bill is trying to get Charles incriminated for stealing oil from Indian tribes and the government. Call your representatives to help Bill out. A brother Freddie sides with Bill, but is not as actively involved in the fight.

Please boycott products by the following Koch affiliated companies:

Invista - Makes Lycra and Stainmaster Carpets and other former Dupont company fabrics.

Georgia-Pacific - Makes a range of consumer paper products. This is one company where an effective boycott can deal a damaging blow to the Kochs. GP is heavily in debt AND, GP has a goal to downgrade non-consumer product lines and focus more of it's sales on consumer products - fuck that goal up for GP.

Flint-Hill Resources

Koch Pipeline

Koch Petroleum Group

Koch Fertilizer

Koch Engineering

Koch Minerals

Matador Ranching Company - find out if your grocer or favorite restaurant does business with Matador. If they do, ask them to find other sources, if they refuse, put their information on the web with details of their refusal.

[otohara]

2. Petro Chemical Products

I pride myself on not using any petro product, except for dishwasher soap. I have yet to find a decent vegetable base product that works well. I used to buy Brawny, but no more, I now purchase Seventh Generation paper products. I was shocked to see how many chemicals are used in making commercial toilet paper. The Koch Bros are notorious for polluting water ways near their paper plants.

No added fragrances is essential, they trigger migraines and general sick feeling.

[eleny]

3. I learned too late about Kleenex

Bought a whole bunch of boxes at 99¢ each several weeks ago. But these will be my last. Puffs it is from here on out.

Marcal is a really old company. We used to get that when I was a kid. Don't know if it's sold out here but I'll look for an alternative. And there's always cloth napkins that I have in abundance. :D

Thanks for the info! K&R

[subterranean]

5. How is Kleenex connected to Koch Industries?

Just wondering because I didn't see it on the list of their products to boycott.

[bluestate10]

7. Major error by me. Kleenex is made by Kimberly-Clark. KC has NO Koch affiliation

and in fact competes against the Koch owned Georgia-Pacific. Georgia-Pacific DOES make Quilted Northern toilet tissue and a number of other common consumer brands.

[bluestate10]

8. Thank you for the challenge. I should have researched the Kleenex connection before listing the

brand.

[Lugnut]

9. I prefer Scott paper products.

I know they were acquired by Kimberly-Clark in 1995 or 96 but that's all I know about them.