Georgia-Pacific gets to the core of sustainability with Aqua Tube®
Make a product that improves people's lives and uses resources efficiently in doing so – this was the approach Georgia-Pacific’s EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) business took when it introduced Aqua Tube to European consumers in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal in early 2011.
The first fully flushable, biodegradable bathroom tissue core gives consumers the option to flush, recycle or compost the tube when the roll is finished.
And that was a key selling point for potential buyers.
According to consumer research commissioned in Europe by GP, 80 percent of consumers were interested in using the Aqua Tube because they said it would make their lives more convenient. Only 55 percent of consumers said they recycled their cores; one in five threw the core away and almost one in three left the core in the bathroom for the next person to clean up.
With the Aqua Tube, Georgia-Pacific developed a way to make paper strong enough to replace the traditional cardboard core and yet dissolve quickly when it touches water. This has an added sustainability benefit of using the same amount of water as flushing normal toilet paper; it doesn’t require an extra flush.
Social Dimension