Am I able to buy paper not made from trees?
Skye, WA
You'd be surprised where some alternative papers come from!
Credit: iStockphoto
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Indeed you can!
The Environmental Paper Network State of the Paper Industry report estimates that about nine per cent of paper fibre comes from non-wood sources globally.
The main non-wood fibres are straw, sugarcane bagasse and bamboo.
Other fibre sources include cotton, reeds, sisal, hemp, jute, kenaf, flax and banana (using the stem and non-utilisable fruit).
The fibres that come from agricultural residues are promising, particularly in cases where they would otherwise be burnt off, contributing to air pollution.
But, for novelty value, you can't beat panda poo paper, made from the fibre-rich excrement of Giant Pandas living in captivity, or the kind that's made from elephant dung. But you might have trouble getting it through customs.
Comments
Conservation through Innovation
Yes your right, you cannot get the elephant dung paper through customs but you can get it in Australia. Import Ants import it from Sri Lanka from Maximus and it is all passed by quarantine and you will be helping to save the endangered Sri Lankan Elephant by using it. Maximus won the BBC World Challenge and the Green America's 2008 Green Business Leadership Award for the paper.
It's tree free, environmentally sustainable and more than recycled.
That's dandy, but where in Australia can one buy paper made from sugarcane bagasse please?
It's hard to find. The most common brand here is Canefields. Years ago, when Planet Ark endorsed it, Canefields paper and stationery were sold in Officeworks but aren't anymore. It's now hard to find, but a few online specialty retailers stock it.