On European Paper Bag Day, Detsky Mir and Segezha Group will conduct a joint environmental campaign in 78 cities of Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg

On October 18, on the European Paper Bag Day, Detsky Mir and Segezha Group, members of Sistema JSFC, will hold a joint environmental campaign. In 178 Detsky Mir stores in the Moscow region, 32 stores in the northern capital, as well as in 28 supermarkets of the chain in Kaliningrad, Petrozavodsk, Veliky Novgorod, Murmansk, Pskov, Severodvinsk and other cities of the country, customers will get more than 40,000 free paper bags produced by timber holding Segezha Group.

The initiative to celebrate the European Paper Bag Day was first proposed in 2018 by the European Federation of Multiwall Paper Sack Manufacturers – EUROSAC. The organization unites over 75% of paper bag manufacturers in Europe from 20 different countries.

The mottos of the public campaign: “Paper bags – a symbol of environmental protection” and “The future belongs to paper packaging”.

The organizers are confident that Russia needs high standards of environmental well-being. With the help of the campaign, Detsky Mir and Segezha Group are planning to contribute to the development of responsible consumption culture in Russia, to draw attention to environmental problems associated with the pollution of nature with polyethylene waste, and to draw attention to the possibility of replacing plastic packaging with biodegradable paper.

“Holding a public environmental campaign for the free distribution of paper bags, Detsky Mir and the Segezha Group publicly declare about their responsible attitude to the environment protection and preservation of nature for the future generations. Our joint task is to reduce the plastic footprint on Earth as much as possible by replacing this phenomenon with environmentally friendly raw materials,” said Anastasia Malitsina, Director for Corporate Communications and Investor Relations of Segezha Group.

“Detsky Mir pays considerable attention to saving natural resources and the reduction of negative environmental impact. Being the market leader in the sale of children’s goods, we promote responsible attitude to environmental issues among customers and our own employees. In particular, in the chain’s stores and logistics centers collect shipping packaging for its further disposal, and cost-effective LED lighting has been installed. The central office of the company has boxes for waste batteries and paper, and electronic document management has been introduced, which made it possible to abandon a significant number of printed versions of documents,” said Nadezhda Kiselyova, head of the department for external and internal communications of Detsky Mir GC.

 According to the experts, more than 60% of consumers choose products from renewable environmentally friendly resources. When choosing between paper and other packaging material, many people prefer paper more and more often. Paper shopping bags are becoming more popular with both shoppers and storeowners. You can put food products, fashionable clothes, electronic goods, and interior items into them – they are durable and reliable, as well as beneficial from the point of view of ecology. Unlike plastic bags, they are not dangerous to the natural environment. The paper, which the bags are made from, completely decomposes in 6-12 weeks and can be used as compost to improve its quality. Since their production uses natural water-soluble paints and glue based on starch, this process does not pollute the environment. Plastic packaging is “immortal” garbage, the term of its decomposition is up to 400 years. When it is decomposing, toxic substances are released into the soil – styrene, formaldehyde, dioxin, bisphenol A. Toxic products leak into the soil and groundwater.

According to a recent EUROSAC study published on the eve of the European Paper Bag Day, the use of paper bags is less dangerous for climate. Thanks to regular reforestations, European forests yield wood growth of 200 million cubic meters per year. Every year, forests in Europe bind and convert up to 719 million tons of CO₂ into biomass, which makes it possible to compensate for the release of fossil carbon into the atmosphere. Papers bag are based on the high-quality kraft paper, which is made from 100% natural renewable fiber. Special paper structure ensures high strength, and packages made of it can boast uniquely high load capacity.

 There is a worldwide practice of gradually restricting the use of plastic bags in trade. The share of 76 countries that banned or restricted their use accounted for 80% of the Earth’s population. According to the open data, the number of plastic bags used in retail trade is more than one trillion pieces annually. The polymer waste accumulation rate is growing exponentially, today in the world 8.3 billion tons of disposed plastic has been recorded. By 2050, if the rate of its production is the same, 33 billion tons of such waste will be concentrated on Earth. In retail chains, 65 billion plastic bags are sold annually in Russia. Population of Moscow alone uses 4 billion bags a year; in 100 years, its area will be able to cover the entire territory of the capital 56 times.

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Segezha Group is one of the Russia’s largest vertically integrated forest holdings, with a full cycle of logging and advanced wood processing. The Group comprises forest, wood processing and pulp & paper assets in Russia and Europe. It has representatives in 11 countries. Segezha’s products are available in 88 countries. Its enterprises employ 13 thousand people. Segezha Group is the largest forest user in the European part of Russia. The total area of its leased forests now equals 6.8 mln ha, 95% of which is certified according to international standards. Segezha Group is No. 1 in Russia (54% of the market) and No. 2 in Europe (14% of the market) for paper bags manufacturing, No. 1 in Russia (71% of the market) and No. 4 globally for brown bag paper manufacturing, No. 7 globally for large-size birch plywood manufacturing, No. 1 in Russia for sawn timber manufacturing and for prefab glulam houses manufacturing.

Website: http://segezha-group.com/

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Detsky Mir Group of Companies (ticker on the Moscow Stock Exchange – DSKY) is the largest children’s goods retailer in Russia. The Group of Companies unites the national retail chain Detsky Mir, ELC retail chain, Detsky Mir and ELC online stores. As of June 30, 2018, Detsky Mir Group of Companies has 599 Detsky Mir stores in Russia and Kazakhstan, located in 209 cities of Russia and 13 cities of Kazakhstan, ELC chain – 50 stores in Russia, ABC chain – 1 store. The total sales area of the group’s stores is 686 thousand square meters.

Websites: www.detmir.ru, corp.detmir.ru, elc-russia.ru.