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The True Cost of “Low-Cost” Paper: Why Market Integrity Matters Now More Than Ever

In today’s volatile economic climate, the pressure to reduce overheads is felt across every sector, from facilities management to luxury hospitality. When budgets are tight, a “low-price” alternative for essential hygiene products can look incredibly attractive. However, at Cartiere Carrara UK, we are seeing a growing trend: the hidden costs of cutting corners.

The “Price vs. Value” Trap It is an old adage that you get what you pay for, but in the professional tissue market, this manifests in very specific ways. A cheaper roll often hides a multitude of compromises:

  • Reduced Sheet Counts: Is that “bargain” roll actually the length it claims to be?
  • Inferior Fibre Quality: Low-grade paper requires more sheets to do the same job, leading to higher “cost-in-use” despite the lower initial price.
  • Inconsistent Supply: Small-scale importers often lack the infrastructure to guarantee the same product quality month after month.

Buying What’s “On the Tin” At Cartiere Carrara, we don’t believe in “smoke and mirrors” pricing. Our 150-year heritage as an integrated Italian manufacturer means we own the process from the forest to the finished product. When we promise a specific GSM (grammage), sheet count, or ply, that is exactly what arrives at your door.

We back this integrity with the industry’s most respected credentials: CHSA, PEFC, and FSC. These aren’t just logos; they are your guarantee that our products are ethically sourced, accurately measured, and fit for purpose.

Stability in Uncertain Times We have seen market cycles come and go for over a century. Our response to uncertainty isn’t to reduce quality to hit a price point; it’s to innovate. Our Bulkysoft range is designed specifically to lower your total spend through “cost-in-use” efficiency, using smarter dispensing and superior fresh fibres so you actually use less paper overall.

In a race to the bottom, the most sustainable choice is to partner with a manufacturer that values consistency over a quick win.

The reliable choose Cartiere Carrara. Don’t be fooled by the price tag, ensure you’re buying what it says on the tin.

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Polycyclic Plantations

In the area of Badia Pozzeveri, not far from our production hub in Capannori, we set up a series of continuous cycle plantations where trees and shrubs with different growth and cutting patterns coexist. They are constantly replanted after cutting, or grow back autonomously from shoots, thus guaranteeing constant natural coverage over time. From the eco-environmental standpoint, polycycle plantations requalify a flat area that used to have only residual agricultural value, improving the local habitat, regulating the absorption of rainwater, and conserving carbon stock in the soil.  

Natural polycyclic plantations are usually composed of an alternation of: 

  • Medium–long-cycle plants, cut at 15–40-year intervals from planting (hazelnut, cherry, oak, maple, ash, linden) for wood used as structural timber or for manufactured products.
  • Short-cycle plants, cut at 8–14-year intervals from planting (in particular poplar) for the production of paper or packaging.
  • Very short-cycle plants, cut at 6–7-year intervals from planting (e.g. plane) and used as firewood.
  • Shrubs that are not cut, and contribute to maintaining soil coverage.

 

This varied composition ensures that the different species are cut at different times, allowing any intervention to have a modest impact on the landscape and on the habitats created. Furthermore, the limited agricultural practices required by this management approach allow for preservation of the carbon stock in the soil, and avoid further aggravating global warming due to the massive repetition of tree cutting and replanting.

This type of planning and management of the woods – which includes the permanence of at least 30-40% of the trees after each cutting cycle – allows us to pair different productive species (namely those providing firewood, structural or construction timber, and wood for the production of cellulose) with the logic of permanent topsoil coverage and biodiversity protection.

The wood management method created by polycyclic plantations entails multiple benefits: productive, visual, bio-ecological benefits in terms of habitats for animal species (protecting local biodiversity), regulation of rainwater, and conservation of carbon stock in soil. All thanks to the limited cutting practices (and the permanence of a large part of the woods), which however supply local production chains, including those dedicated to poplar wood and to cellulose production for paper manufacturing.

Kilometroverde® - Lucca.

The Cartiere Carrara Group celebrates 150 years of history.

Kilometroverde® - Lucca.

The initiative was born in collaboration with Rete Clima, and consists of a 1-kilometre linear forestation project along the southern section of the A11 motorway between the exits of Lucca Est and Capannori, which runs along the company’s plants.
Trees and shrubs were planted on land that used to be bare, and a typical Tuscan forest was reconstituted to replace an existing, neo-formed woodland that had been of limited value for the forest and wider ecosystem. The area was repopulated with autochthonous species of trees and shrubs, reviving a forest type historically present in the Tuscan area but now significantly reduced due to agricultural activities and industrial sites that have developed on the land over time. This type of “linear plantation” is an innovative strategy for the area, intended to have a protective function and to mitigate local environmental impacts. Kilometroverde® Lucca will take on a triple function over time: physical and visual separation barrier between land and motorway; woodland (a true and proper green lung) able to capture the particulate pollutants produced by vehicular traffic (the well-known PM); and concrete tool for a strategy to develop natural continuity with existing sections of woods.
The positive impact of this intervention is not limited to the local territory: like all new forestation initiatives, Kilometroverde® – Lucca will allow us to increase the total absorption of CO2 and contribute to mitigating the effects of global warming.

Kilometroverde® – Lucca will be certified according to the PEFC standard for Sustainable Forest Management. .

The Cartiere Carrara Group celebrates 150 years of history.

With the acquisition of the Caldaroni Group, the Cartiere Carrara Group is born, paving the way for new growth and future goals.

The Carrara family’s activities are brought back together under the aegis of Cartiere Carrara S.p.A., thus unifying their resources and consolidating their position in the industry.

Mario Carrara’s branch of the family decides to resume the activities previously excluded from the 2002 transfer, starting from Cartiera Carma, of which it had always maintained exclusive ownership. With fresh new impetus, the family re-enters the professional and consumer tissue market.

The turn of the millennium brings new opportunities. Cartoinvest is sold to the multinational SCA.

Cartoinvest becomes the exclusive licensee of the Kleenex brand for Europe, thus confirming its leadership in the European tissue market.

The Cartoinvest Group is founded, and takes control of no less than twelve companies in Italy and in Europe, further strengthening their presence and influence in the industry.

The historical plant in Pietrabuona starts its first continuous machine for tissue paper, introducing remarkable technological innovations in the manufacturing process.

The Carrara family makes its debut in the paper manufacturing business, opening a paper mill in Pietrabuona to make straw paper.