While surfing the net, I found this unusual product via one of my favorite sites, Notcot.
Paper products actually made from Elephant Poo. That's right...Efelump Dung Journals and Notecards.
How do they do it?
The making of paper starts with the collection and processing of the dung pulp. Elephant dung is typically full of short to medium grained fibrous materials from the elephants diet which when processed makes excellent paper:
• We collect naturally dried elephant dung from elephant conservation parks and bring it back to our paper-making factory.
• We then pre-rinse the elephant dung with water, leaving only the fibrous materials from the grasses, bamboo & fruits they've eaten.
• Afterwards, we place the fibers into a giant pot of boiling water to ensure the fibers are super clean. After this thorough cleaning, any color that we may want to add can be added.
• Natural fibers from banana trees & pineapples are added to the dung mixture so the paper will be thicker & stronger.
• Once this is all mixed together, we separate the moist fibers into small “cakes' or “wafers” of about 300-400 grams each.
• The cakes are spread evenly over a mesh-bottomed tray measuring about 60cm by 90cm.
• The tray is leaned up against a tree, angled toward the sun and allowed to dry naturally for a few hours.
• Once dry, we peel the sheet of paper from the mesh tray and start making Poo Poo Paper products.
This is how we made the hand made paper stationary and our how to make recycled paper process!
above: Journals
above: Notecards
A Brief History Of The Elephant:
The elephant can be traced back 26 million years when there were many species that had similar characteristics as today's elephants. Today, only two living species remain: the African Elephant and the Asian Elephant.
Elephants have been used in various capacities by humans over the years. They wee used in the military and for heavy labor, such as uprooting trees and moving logs. They have also played a strong role in religion: a white elephant is considered holy in Thailand ; Ganesh, the Hindu God of wisdom, has an elephant's head.
Today, elephants are facing numerous threats: the disappearance of natural habitats due to human activity, and poaching for their ivory tusks, meats and hides, to name a few. Many experts believe there is little future for the elephant outside protected areas.
Elephants used to exist in great numbers across Africa and parts of Asia but today these gentle giants are endangered. Rampant ivory poaching from 1979-89 more than halved Africa 's wild elephant populations from 1.4 million to a mere 600,000. Today, numbers may be as low as 400,000. In Asia , it is estimated that no more than 40,000 Asian elephants remain in the wild.
above: Stationery
The answers to commonly asked questions:
Question #1: Do your products smell?
This is by far the most asked question we receive! Our products do not smell at all...not like poo anyways! Our products smell like normal stationery type products although we have been experiementing with adding some nice aromas to our poo papers. We've had requests from cinnamon, lemon and coffee scented papers......we're working in this!!!!!
Our products don't smell because we allow the fresh elephant poo poo to completely dry up first then we thoroughly rinse and wash the elephant dung and all we're really left with are the fibres from the vegetation that the elephant didn't digest. That stuff doesn't stink!
Question #2: How many journals can you make from an average piece of elephant poo?
We can make about 25 large sheets of paper from a single piece (or turd) of elephant poo poo!!! That translates into about 10 standard sized journals including the front and back covers! Neat, huh!?!?!?
Question #3: Do you have other types of products?
Currently, we have over 150 unique items in our collection. Most of those items you cannot see on our website and need to go to the stores that carry our products for you to purchase. These products also include picture frames, photo albums, book marks, small storage boxes for keepsakes, gift bags and wine bags in addition to the many styles of journals, noteboxes, greeting cards etc. that we make and sell. We have many new products coming down the chute over the next few months and into 2007 so check back here regularly!
Get it here. Your source for hand made paper stationary.