Elephant Dung Paper

• An elephant deposits 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.