Environmental considerations are fundamental to the HARTMANN GROUP’s choices for materials for its products. For example, we try to use fossil resources sparingly, preferring sustainable raw materials.
90 percent sustainable raw materials
By regularly monitoring our cellulose suppliers we are also able to check up on the sustainability of their ecologically-oriented forestry methods
The HARTMANN GROUP uses some 70 percent cellulose and 20 percent cotton in its production. This means that the overall volume of sustainable raw materials we use in production stands at around 90 percent. Most of our cellulose comes from the southern states of the USA where fast-growing woods are cultivated in sustainably farmed forests. We buy from and thus support the Sustainable Forest Initiative® programme, one of the world’s largest initiatives to preserve and cultivate healthy forests with their natural diversity. Only ten percent of our raw materials come from non-regenerative sources. But here too we prefer to opt for environmentally safe materials such as polyethylene.
Efficient use of raw materials
Our products represent an ideal combination of different materials, uniting maximum user-friendliness with a responsible approach to the environment. We process cellulose mainly as an absorbent, and cotton for textile dressings. To manufacture cotton wool we use fibres that would be rejected by the textile industry because they are too short, e.g., for spinning works, but are ideal for the requirements of cotton wool production. This means that full advantage can be taken of the relevant raw material, cotton. For our cellulose products we also recycle fibres that have already been used within the company whenever technically possible.
A comparably small quantity of SAP, an environmentally neutral polymer, can soak up the same amount of liquid as many times more cellulose (left). This allows us to cut our cellulose consumption considerably
For the manufacture of absorbent cores for incontinence products, the HARTMANN GROUP uses a superabsorbent – an environmentally neutral synthetic material that can soak up and hold many times its own weight in liquid. Because of this, cellulose consumption can be reduced dramatically – a smaller amount of this kind of synthetic material can absorb the same amount of liquid as a considerably larger quantity of cellulose. Since this superabsorbent is so very absorbent we can manufacture thinner, lighter and, at the same time, much more effective products. The result: a smaller volume and thus less packaging, less to transport and less strain on the environment.
