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Our planet Earth’s largest land mammal, the elephant, has decided to give back to the environment, but in a more unique fashion—with poop!
An eco-friendly fair trade company called Mr. Ellie Pooh has created an alternative to the traditional and environmentally harmful papermaking. The company makes sustainable paper made out of 50% rice/recycled paper and 50% of fiber from elephant dung!
In Sri Lanka, an island country off the coast of India, wild elephants are being killed due to an agricultural conflict between the native farmers and these four-legged giants. Farmers see the Asian elephants as a nuisance and interference, as the elephant’s natural grazing can lead to destroying valued crops. These gargantuan but gentle creatures’ are running out of space, and are being shot and killed. The founder of Mr. Ellie Pooh, Dr. Karl, questioned how could the already declining elephant population be preserved?
The answer is pooh paper. Rather than viewing the elephant as a threat to crops, it can be viewed as an economic asset. Elephant dung contains an immense amount of fiber through their all-vegetarian diet. They eat up to 500 pounds of food daily, and create 400 pounds of pooh. The dung creates an acid-free, papyrus paper that has a more organic look than traditional paper.
Along with creating sustainable paper, this process creates fair-wage jobs in Sri Lanka by collecting elephant dung and going through the process of making it into paper! This process includes collecting, sand drying, separating the fibrous parts from waste, and then mixing the fiber with recycled paper. This organic paper is stronger material, and we promise it doesn’t smell!
This incredibly sustainable project addresses three issues:
1) Natural habitat destruction: Elephants do not contribute to deforestation
2) The killing of elephants
3) Assisting this local economy with fair-waged jobs
Want an eco friendly business card? Mr. Ellie Pooh would love to provide the paper for you! You can learn more about Mr. Ellie Pooh at www.mrelliepooh.com.
