NECESSARIES FROM A
Renewable Resource By G.B. Crawford, Director of Public Relations
WHAT BEGAN AS A RUMOR on social media in February quickly sparked a panic buying spree. Consumers rushed to grab toilet paper from store shelves as the COVID-19 health crisis spread worldwide under a fear that the product would not be available.
Timber provides the renewable raw material used to make bathroom tissue and paper towels.
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FLORIDAGRICULTURE | JULY 2020
Government stay-at-home orders added grist to the belief. In Florida and across the nation retailers began limiting purchases, escalating the quest to stockpile rolls. But the shortages that occurred were store inventory problems, not production issues. U.S. manufacturing plants – the facilities that make most of the toilet paper purchased in this country – actually increased their output in a collective attempt to meet the demand. According to the American Forest and Paper Association, domestic manufacturers shipped out more than 22,000 tons of bathroom tissue and paper towels per day in February and March – a record total. The Georgia-Pacific mill near Palatka helped to create that record. A unit of one of the largest three tissue paper manufacturers in the nation, it raised production to meet a surging demand. Eric Abercrombie, spokesman for Georgia-Pacific, said the Florida plant along with other company facilities have increased overall volume by 1.5 million rolls per day. Products from the Palatka mill are well known consumer items. Angel Soft and Quilted Northern bathroom tissue and Brawny and Sparkle paper towels made at the plant can be found in many retail establishments. Bathroom tissue and other finished papers are manufactured by using wood pulp made from trees that are mostly grown in the surrounding region. These renewable resources have supported jobs as well as the production of bathroom tissue for generations.
