Eco-Friendly Paper Saves Endangered Elephants

Paper can be made out of many different materials. But who would have thought that animal droppings could be included in this list? Yes you read that question correctly. Animal Droppings can be used to make paper. The company that makes this paper is called Mr. Ellie Pooh

Elephant poo paper was created to save the elephants. Approximately one tenth of the Asian Elephant population has made its home in Sri Lanka and they greatly interfere in the agricultural community there. Because of this great interference the elephants cause they are killed. Not for their Ivory, not for meat but simply because they are pests. Sri Lankans tend to see elephants as a great annoyance because they trample their crops, so they kill them to protect their livelihood.

The process of making elephant poo paper seems fairly simple, all things considered. The elephant poo is dried then collected and taken to the paper making factory. The poo is then rinsed with water leaving behind the fiber materials from grasses, fruits and bamboo that they have eaten. Elephant droppings are full of short to medium length fibers which makes great paper when it’s processed. The fibers are then placed into an enormous pot of boiling water to make sure that the fibers are really clean. After the cleaning salt based color dyes, which is water soluble can be added. Then to make the paper stronger and thicker fibers from banana trees and pine apples are added. When all of that is mixed together, the mixture is separated into small cakes. The ‘cakes’ are about three hundred to four hundred grams each. Each ‘cake’ is then evenly spread onto a mesh bottom tray that is about twenty three and a half inches by thirty five and a half inches in size. The tray is then leaned angled toward the sun and left to dry naturally for several hours. Once the contents of the tray are dry it is carefully peeled out of the tray and used to make paper products.

Elephant poo paper products are one hundred percent recycled. It is made of seventy five percent elephant droppings and twenty five percent other fibers. No toxic chemicals are used in the process of making the paper. They use natural vegetative binding agents and salt dyes that are water soluble for coloring. They are completely environmentally friendly and organic. All profits from the sales of this paper are being used to support elephant conservation programs. There are no trees cut down to make it and one elephant dropping can be used to at least ten journal sized notebooks, including the cover. One adult elephant can produce five hundred pounds of droppings in a single day, which makes it a very renewable and reliable source of material.

Elephant poo paper is made by at least three separate companies.

Mr. Ellie Poo at http://www.mrelliepoo.com/

Poo Poo Paper at http://www.poopoopaper.com/

Elephant Dung Paper at http://www.elephantdungpaper.com/

You can purchase elephant poo products directly from their websites or there are many stores only that carry their paper products. It can also be found at Target or other specialty art stores