Recycled Elephant Dung Notebook

40 multi-coloured page notebook 150 x 210.

Full of colour and fun and made from 75% elephant dung and 25% recycled paper. The aim of this paper is to educate local communities on the plight of the Sri Lankan elephant and for them to eventually live together in harmony. Winner of the BBC World Challenge 2006.

The handmade paper is made using a fibrous material, and is boiled and beaten to make the fibre pulp. With elephant dung paper, the elephant has done the pulping so it needs to be collected and then cleaned by boiling and steaming so all bacteria are killed. The pulp is then put in to a shallow mould. The coarseness of the paper is entirely dependent on the elephant's diet, again making no two sheets identical.

There is a more important side to Elephant dung products though. The raw paper is bought directly from theMaximus Conservation Trust. All profits from the making of the paper go directly back into the foundation which, at present, looks after 5 elderly elephants, and goes into developing relations between humans and elephants. Basically, as tourism and population grow, this is having adverse effects on elephant habitats with humans taking over traditional elephant paths. Humans then grow food which elephants eat, resulting in conflict. Maximus is paying villagers to collect elephant dung thus trying to get both parties to live together.

The Maximus Conservation Trust is in the grounds of the Millennium Elephant Foundation, a charity that cares for sick and disabled elephants as well as promoting the plight of the Sri Lankan elephant. The ultimate in recycled paper.

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