IGA dumps toilet paper product

EoF News / 27 August 2011

(from smh.com.au/ AAP) -- A supermarket chain has wiped two toilet paper brands from its shelves following a campaign by environmentalists to save endangered tigers in Indonesia.

Metcash, owner of IGA supermarkets, took the decision after a Greenpeace campaign linked Black and Gold and Signature toilet paper products from the Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) to the death of the animals.In July, Greenpeace released video footage which showed the death of a Sumatran tiger in a hunting trap after its habitat was destroyed by APP.

Metcash has announced the product will be dumped immediately.The company says it will not trade with APP or its affiliates until they have committed to stop deforestation.

Greenpeace welcomed Metcash's decision on Thursday but said APP paper products were still being sold in other retail stores and used in hotels across Australia."Greenpeace is urging these companies to look behind APP's greenwashing at the hard evidence of their destruction of Indonesia's last remaining rainforests," Greenpeace forests campaigner Reece Turner said in a statement on Thursday."Australians deserve to know if they are wiping their bums with the habitats of critically endangered Sumatran tigers."Australian companies linked to APP should be looking to find alternative suppliers."IGA was the only major supermarket chain in Australia to source paper products from APP, through its Australian affiliate Solaris.

It was sold under the IGA Black and Gold and Signature labels.Woolworths ended its contract with APP in 2008 after it was unable to verify that its paper products were sourced sustainably.Coles has said that none of its paper products are sourced from APP or Solaris.There are about 400 Sumatran tigers alive in the wild and they are classified as critically endangered.