Paper doesn’t have to be made from trees. In my article on treeless paper, I mentioned a bunch of alternatives. Some of them you have probably already heard of, such as hemp – others more exotic; like elephant dung. Yep, elephant poop.
  
I received an email from Jennifer Turner yesterday who is selling elephant dung based paper. Before you screw your nose up, take a look at her site, PachydermPapyrus.com – there’s some really nice looking products out there.
  
It seems that elephants aren’t all that efficient in digesting their food, so what comes out the other end is quite fibrous and well suited to making paper from. There’s a lot of it too – I’ve read a single elephant can poop a couple of hundred pounds of material a day!
  
To make the paper, the poop is collected, dried, then washed and boiled. The resulting pulp is then beaten and dyes added, mixed with water and then spread into frames for drying. From there, it is sanded to make it smooth. The finished product is a papyrus-type paper.
  
This is a product that is free of the chemicals often used in making tree based paper – and in case you’re wondering, I’m told the elephant poop paper is odor-free too.
   
In addition to a tree-free product that recycles waste, 10% of Pachyderm Papyrus’ profits go to further conservation activities in Asian elephant sanctuaries. 
   
Jennifer tells me that their most popular product in recent times has been for their small invitation set, which people have been using to create personalized invitations for weddings, retirements and birthdays. In case you’re hesitant, Pachyderm Papyrus is so confident that you will be an elephant poop dung paper convert; they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
   
Trivia: The word Pachyderm is an old term referring to an order of mammals which include the elephant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus. The word means “thick skin”.
     
Related
   
Recycling processes
Tips on buying recycled paper