If you’re tired of feeling guilty about wasting paper
every time a professor tells you to rip out a sheet for whatever
exercise he or she has in mind, you now have an interesting
alternative ““ roo poo paper.
An Australian company, Creative Paper Tasmania, recently sent
out a request for people to collect and contribute kangaroo and
wallaby poop to help the company amass enough dung to make roo poo
paper.
Using poo as wood-pulp alternative seems to have become a trend
across the world. Creative Paper Tasmania’s manager Joanna
Gair said roo poo was inspired by the efforts of an African company
which made paper out of elephant waste.
In case you’re wondering, the process by which the poo
becomes paper is not as complicated as you might think ““ or
hope.
First, the poo is dried and washed. Once the washing process
isolates the fibers, it is boiled for five hours. Then it is pulped
and made into paper.
Both Gair and another poo-to-paper company, the Thai Elephant
Conservation Center, assert that the paper does not smell; the
latter promises that the paper is 100 percent bacteria free. The
animals actually help perform part of the paper-making process,
since they cannot digest the fibers and instead poop them out.
And while poo paper that hasn’t been mixed with anything
else does look like poop; when mixed with cotton and other organic
materials it looks like normal artisan paper.
I love the novelty of this idea. It sounds a little weird
initially, but that’s just a stigma we can overcome, I
hope.
After all, we swim in oceans full of sewage, pollution and
marine animal poo ““ sometimes we even accidentally swallow it
““ and we think nothing of it. We let our pets lick our faces
or eat with us. Some people never wash their hands after using the
bathroom, then eat lunch.
And yet we’re obsessed with anything that claims to be
anti-bacterial (soaps, moisturizers, air fresheners and laundry
detergents, to name a few), even though they can kill the
“good” bacteria that are essential for our daily lives.
It’s a silly double standard.
Besides, if the paper is truly bacteria-free, then the only
problem is that we are disturbed with the idea of where it came
from.
Still, it would be reassuring, even for me, if further research
guaranteed that it has been sanitized to a satisfactory level. I
wish someone would make such research a priority; I like my wood
more in trees than in paper.
I’m all for finding alternative resources to minimize
landfills and create a more sustainable cycle of life ““ and
these alternatives don’t necessarily have to be animal
waste.
For example, hemp is used to make paper. It has also been
utilized for a variety of other products ““ ranging from
underwear and outerwear, handbags, linens, paper and even foods
such as hemp oil or hemp-nut butter. It grows faster than trees, in
a variety of climates, and could reduce our dependency on other
nonrenewable or nearly depleted resources. Furthermore, to assuage
concern about hemp-product misuse, hemp advocates say that the THC
can be completely extracted from the hemp products.
But if hemp and dung aren’t your choice of poison, there
are a variety of other wood alternatives whose sources are not
controversial. Seaweed, banana, coconut, honeycomb and sugarcane
paper serve as more appetizing alternatives. Some of these, such as
banana and sugarcane resources, can be stronger or more adaptable
than wood pulp and require less water in the paper-making
process.
These alternatives can be made into artistic-looking paper,
whose color and fibers show the natural qualities of the materials
used, or turned into printer- or copier-quality paper through a
non-bleach process.
We should take advantage of these alternative sources. UCLA (and
all universities) should think more as a university that sets an
educated example, rather than a business with only profit in
mind.
UCLA students, though they may be struggling financially, should
also make efforts to switch to wood alternatives. We can create
demand for the product so that it becomes more accessible to the
mainstream.
If we, the (self-)critical strata of society, do not make the
push to affect change, no one will.
When they come out with a car that runs on peace, love, dreams
and fairy dust, I’ll be first in line to buy, no matter the
cost. Until then, poo paper ““ and the other less-odious
alternatives ““ is close enough.
If you have an ’04 model car that runs on peace, love,
dreams or fairy dust, please e-mail Hashem at
nhashem@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.