Developing OnePly: The Greenest Tissue Paper in the World

Project Description

The OnePly® project has been executed within the framework of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. The aim was to create a tissue product with softness equivalent to other structured tissue manufacturing techniques despite having a 63% reduction in energy usage and reduction of water consumption by more than one half.

Project Purpose

In order to reach those numbers, the product should consist of a single ply, unlike conventional tissue papers with two or three layers. As a result, the main challenge of the project was to rethink both the product and the manufacturing process, so that the tissue rolls would still be competitive in terms of quality. Reducing the energy usage of traditional manufacturing processes, without rethinking the product and the process, would severely affect the paper’s characteristics.

As this was an industry-first approach there was no state-of-theart technology available, so it was necessary to develop key aspects of the machine engineering in-house, and have very receptive partners to integrate existing machinery with the internally developed elements. LC Paper partnered with the machine industry company MTorres, starting a relationship of cooperation in the design of a disruptive tissue manufacturing technique that ultimately resulted in a product with the lowest CO2 footprint of its class.

Project Evaluation

LC Paper has transitioned from the classical 34 g/m2 tissue products to a new toilet product portfolio of 28 g/ m2. While a conventional toilet paper with 34 g/m2 has a manufacturing energy consumption of 0.102 kWh/ m2, the new OnePly® paper achieves consumption of 0.038 kWh/m2, a reduction of 63%. That of course means our new tissue manufacturing process also has substantially lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Joan Vila

LC Paper’s CEO

Is single-layer tissue really that innovative?
There have been budget single-layer tissue offerings for a while. Our goal was different because we wanted to break the association where a premium product implies high energy usage, and low energy usage is only suitable for budget products. Ultimately we demonstrated that this is not the case.

Do you think single-layer tissue products will be a market trend, or is this a one-off project?
The great thing about the OnePly project is that, apart from being a challenging sustainability goal, it makes a lot of sense in terms of business strategy and market positioning. Using less energy means lowering costs, thus having a more competitive product. Also, deciding to have a singlelayer offering reduces raw material consumption, which is key in an industry where input prices are steadily increasing.

 

Main features:

CO2 Emissions saved (tCO2)

The OnePly® Toilet product has a footprint of 0.014 tCO2/m2, while competing products have a footprint of 0.044 tCO2/m2 (a decrease of 69%)

Investment

€2.76 million

Partnerships

EU Horizon 2020 grant, MTorres