A New Form Of Paper: Elephant Dung Paper

Research

Everybody knows that paper is made from trees, every year about four billion trees are cut down to have paper as a by-product. Paper is made at a significant environmental cost however we still keep producing paper as paper is important for our daily lives. 

In the village of Randeniya, Thusita Ranasinghe understands how easily elephant dung could be turned into paper. As elephant consumes only trees the undigested wood fibres are found in their dung, this same product is extracted from tree trunks to make paper.

Thusita Ranasinghe then founded Eco Maxium. He collects dung from a local reservoir for elephants. An elephant defecates sixteen to eighteen times a day producing over 200 pounds of dung which is a large quantity, his factory is run on 12 elephants dung. First, dung is collected and boiled for over an hour to bring the wood fibre into a pulp and also remove any germs or bacteria. Next, the pulp is mixed with non-wood fibre pulp to make the paper stronger. One-third of pulp is mixed with two-thirds of non-wood fibre to make paper. Mixing and blending transform mixture into a stew-like mixture which is then and formed into round balls. At this stage, any colouring is added for coloured paper and the pulp is redissolved in water and strained through a framed screen which retains the pulp fibre while the water passes through. Once the frame is full, it’s the content is spread and dried thoroughly. The last stage is cutting the paper to different sizes and shape and making books and journals.

Eco Maxium started with seven employees now it has grown to a company with eighty employees and sells international to thirty countries. Other than paper they also produce different art craft items such as cards, envelopes and stationery items. Thusita Ranasinghe’s novel idea has made him an international businessman and also an environmentalist, we wish him the very best!!!