African manufacturer bets on bamboo toilet paper to hit production target

Increasingly attentive to innovation and environmental responsibility, many industries in the paper sector have sought more sustainable alternatives in the development of their products, to meet the needs of increasingly demanding and aware customers.

In this context, GoodRoll Factory Ghana Limited, a local tissue company in southern Ghana, a local subsidiary of the Dutch company The GoodRool, launched its first sustainability-oriented products with tissue paper made from bamboo.

With its One-District-One-Factory (IDIF) tissue mill, established this year in Akwamufie, it produces 120,000 rolls of bamboo toilet paper daily. The company’s ambitious goal for the next three years is to reach a slice of around 20% of the paper market in the country.

The company currently has 103 employees, of which 19 are women and 82 are part of the Akwamufie community and its surroundings (Ajena, Gyekiti, Aboasa, Atimpoku and Akosombo).

According to Mohammed Sani Adjei, the company’s financial and administrative director, the agreements signed with the Forestry Commission and other relevant organizations linked to the matter intend to guarantee local farmers around 200,000 bamboo seedlings for replanting, thus ensuring the supply of raw material for more sustainable production.

The executive even said that when brown toilet papers were produced from bamboo fiber, no chemicals were added to the product, making it more environmentally friendly and safer for consumers to use.

For Henry Kwabena Kokofu, executive director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ghana needs investments between US$ 9.3 and US$ 15.5 billion to help combat the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and climate adaptation in several priority sectors of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) – an agreement that affirms the country’s commitment to dealing with the impacts of climate change on the economy and the most vulnerable population.

The company is working with several organizations and some students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ashanti region, to help calculate how much carbon bamboo trees could absorb from the atmosphere, according to Muntaka Ibrahim, CEO of the company, and Allan Thompson, director of projects and corporate social responsibility.

The executives also stated that the creation of the GoodRoll Foundation makes it possible to carry out a series of projects as part of their CSR to provide basic necessities for the local community, such as toilets and pads for girls in schools in the region, as well as talking about hygiene. menstrual.

In addition, the company signed a partnership with the non-governmental organization Pro-link – a fact that left the technical adviser and founder of the organization, Bernice Adiku-Heloo, excited, since the action will benefit the communities, guaranteeing the achievement of several goals, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).