On World Elephant Day, The Organic Magazine takes a look at the amazing Elephant POOPOOPAPER made in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The company, POOPOOPAPER makes unique, handcrafted, tree-free, eco-friendly, odourless (of course!) paper, gift and stationery products made from elephant poo, cow poo, horse poo and donkey poo.
Elephant POOPOOPAPER was the first paper that the company began to make and over 15 years the company has been working with and creating paper from natural and sustainable resources, using traditional techniques and process that haven’t changed very much in thousands of years. The Elephant paper is made with pulp containing Elephant Poo and Agricultural waste bi-products – such as sugar cane and coconut shell husks.
No chemicals or bleaches are used in the processes – so obviously the paper is not white. We make hand-crafted sheets as well as a more refined, machine milled paper. Even the hand-made, Elephant Paper Parent Sheets are rich, fibrous and textured. They are odour-free (of course) and completely organic. They come in an ever changing and amazing variety of colours – all using dyes created from chemical free, vegetable based food colouring.
All the animals that generate the poo have at least two things in common:
- All are herbivores and have highly fibrous diets of bamboo, sugar cane, grasses, banana trees, leaves, twigs, fruits and/or various other plants and vegetation.
- All possess somewhat inefficient digestive systems that don’t completely digest and breakdown all the fibers that they eat. This results in a significant amount of fibers remaining intact when these animals poop.
Elephant poo fibers are collected from some of the many elephant sanctuaries and parks in northern Thailand and our local mahout network. Poop fibers from other animals such as cows, horses, Thai buffalos, donkeys etc. come to us from many farms, dairies and stables in the region. All these materials are abundant locally and in many cases the removal of the waste material is helpful and welcome.
