Tissue restarts with an epochal change in consumption

During the pandemic, the tissue sector experienced a revolution in the use of paper products, in particular the “optional” ones like paper towels, napkins, facial tissue. Their demand is growing strongly at-home, but slightly declining in the away-from-home segment (catering, canteens). Marco Calcagni, OMET Marketing & Sales Director, gives his analysis of the market at the very beginning of 2022.

Interfolded products, in particular, are growing for an increasing consumers’ attention to hygiene – they prefer to touch only one product – and for actions aimed at eliminating, in some countries, air dryers in public environments, because they are considered harmful to health.

Disposable items are entering our homes more and more often not only for hygienic reasons, but also because the new generations perceive that using a paper napkin costs less than washing a cloth napkin, due to the energy consumption of the process. This trend, well defined in the United States and in the Nordic countries, is spreading in the European countries and will be expanding all over the world. The sector is also experiencing a growing demand for sanitizing disposable non-woven or tissue products.

All things considered, there is a positive trend for tissue sector, also on the investment side -thanks to the recovered confidence in the future – despite the fluctuations in raw material costs, cellulose, create some difficulties for companies working on big contracts.

In this context, OMET has designed new solutions suited to emerging needs and is going to present high production machines, with lighter intermediate processes of working or cutting. They are developed to be more efficient and to allow customers to be more productive and competitive, at the same time respecting the new requirements about sustainability, energy savings and waste reduction.

I also believe that the growing demand for paper products is absolutely compatible with the attention to sustainability: first, the big paper manifacturers are at the forefront in restoring the forests because they want to preserve their raw material, and secondly we must consider that sometimes recycling processes involves the use of chemical agents harmful to the environment.