Your favourite paper towel brand may be cut from Canada's boreal forest

A new report suggests many paper towel brands Canadians use are cut from the boreal forest.

A new report suggests some of the most popular brands in Canada make paper towels with wood cut from key Canadian forests.

The report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a U.S. environmental non-profit organization, shows several big-name paper towel, toilet paper and facial tissue manufacturers are using trees from the boreal forest.

According to Natural Resources Canada, harvesting in Canada's boreal forests is done "sustainably."

These trees cut down through techniques that "emulate" natural disturbances, such as wildfires, the NRC told CTVNews.ca last year, in response to a previous NRDC report. CTVNews.ca reached out for comment on this year's report, but did not hear back by deadline.

One of those practices used is clear-cutting, the NRC said.

NRDC alleges "hundreds of thousands of tonnes" of the wood pulp used in paper towel come from Canada's boreal forest, which makes up 28 per cent of the world's boreal zone, according to Natural Resources Canada (NRC).

The Canadian boreal forest covers 270 million hectares, in which spruce, fir, pine and tamarack trees are most common.