Elephant Dung Paper

• An elephantdeposits around 50kilos of dung per day
• Elephants are poor digesters of their food - more than 50% of what they eat (bamboo, grass, trees and shrubs) comes straight out the other end as fibre pulp.
• This has led to the birth a new industry in Sri Lanka - the manufacture of Elephant Dung Paper!
• All handmade paper begins with a fibrous material, which is boiled and beaten to make the fibre pulp. With elephant dung paper, the elephant has already completed the pulping process. Dung is collected, cleaned by boiling or steaming to kill bacteria and then dried in flat sheets in a shallow mould. The end product is a beautifully textured paper - and because each batch made is dependent on the elephants' diet, no two sheets are identical!

Maximus (Pvt) Ltd was established in 1997 and their aim is to use the "Elephant Dung" paper to create and then further raise awareness to the tragic circumstances that surround the Sri Lankan Elephant. They are also developing strategies aimed at improving the socio - economic situation that currently restricts under privileged people living in rural areas. Conflict between man and wild elephants over land are severely detrimental to both. Maximus vision is to bring these two together by implementing Project "Peace Paper". In conflict areas we hope to create autonomous and self-sustaining re-cycling plants that make Elephant dung paper from wild elephant dung. This they hope will create a mutual and beneficial relationship between man and beast rather than the conflicts that currently exist.

More details & trade enquiries on Elephant Dung pager....

Elephant Dung Recycler wins Green Business Award

Daily News
Saturday,December 6, 2008

Mr. Ellie Pooh won Co-op America's 2008 Green Business Leader Award for making 100 per cent handmade journals, stationery, office apiplies and various des of paper made partially from Sri Lankan elephant dung.

The award was presented at the Green Business Con­ference in San Francisco on November 13, 2008 by the 2007 Green Business Leader Award winne,. Organic Valley. Awarded since 2003, the Green Business Leader Award recognises the extraordinary leadership efforts of one business that has used its position in the marketplace to organise consumers and businesses together to build a more socially just and ecologically sustainable economy.

Sri Lanka is home to about one out of 10 of the world's estimated 40,000 Asian elephants still living in the wild. Elephants are not killed in Sri Lanka for their tusks, their hides or for meat - they are killed because they interfere with agricultural crops. Mr. Ellie Pooh is working towards finding ways to change the perceptions of farmers, who are being encouraged to see the elephants as a sustainable economic resource.

Along with Maximus, their Sn Lankan partner and paper-production company, Mr. Ellie Pooh plans to introduce "Project Peace Paper," which would open paper re-cycling plants in rural areas, train villagers in paper making techniques and sell finished goods worldwide to contribute to the local economy.

"Mr. Ellie Pooh paper products are 100 per cent recycled, made up of 75 per cent elephant dung and 25 percent post consumer paper.""There are no toxic chem­icals used in the paper-mak­ing process, only basic bond­ing agents such as alum and rosin, along with water solu­ble salt dyes for coloring. As no bleach or acids are intro­duced during manufacturing, the handmade papers are pH neutral and can be used in multiple situations," Mr. Ellie Pooh founder. Karl Wald said.