What affects the industry? Three events - one common theme: sustainability!

The retail market for disposable hygiene products grew by only 1-2 % in the last 2 years (source: Euromonitor). In personal care, all market leaders have talked about their sustainability initiatives. In general, the consensus is that things are moving too slowly. Everyone agreed that no one can single-handedly change the market. There is a need for all major companies and the entire value chain to work together on sustainability. The focus of sustainability in personal care is on reusable, biodegradable and recyclable products.

The CAGR for wipes is expected to be 7.3 % over the next few years (source: Smithers). Much of this is expected to be in the personal care and home care segments. In the wet wipes segment, there is a strong increase in the use of biodegradable materials such as cotton, wood fibers, bast fibers, or bamboo. The growth of these fibers is over 8%, while petroleum-based fibers are only growing by 5 % (source: Smithers). In particular, the use of short wood-based pulps poses new challenges for converters, as these materials generally have lower strength values due to the shorter fibers.