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Kimberly-Clark Professional Partners with US Composting Council and Keep America Beautiful to Create Workplace Composting GuideROSWELL, 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 "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 andresources," added Pulley. 100 percent compostable towels "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 About Keep America Beautiful About Kimberly-Clark Professional About Kimberly-Clark [KMB-B] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160401/350484LOGO
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kimberly-clark-professional-partners-with-us-composting-council-and-keep-america-beautiful-to-create-workplace-composting-guide-300253491.html SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Professional |