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Lankan
pioneers Elephant dung paper The young Sri Lankan accountant, who had joined the family's printing business after working in other presses, was looking for a novel idea and this was it. "This looked a good idea to develop and I worked on it," says Ranasinghe, managing director of Maximus (Pvt) Ltd, a Sri Lankan company that has produced the first-ever commercial paper from elephant dung in the world. Ranasinghe hasn't met or communicated with the Kenyan game ranger who led to the Sri Lankan's fortunes changing rapidly - at least to exchange notes. However Maximus launched in 1997 has moved from strength to strength -propelled by elephant dung and tonnes of it! Revenues from the sale of handmade paper using elephant dung rose to Rs 19 million last year from just Rs 650,000 and Ranasinghe said they can do more if the company produces more paper. "Ninety percent of our production is exported," he said, adding that the project is still a cottage industry employing about 100 people. The plant at the village of Pinnawela near Kegalle, home to the world's pioneering elephant orphanage, uses about two tonnes of dung per day. Ranasinghe says an elephant eats about 200 kg of dry food a day and defecates 16 times. "So there is a lot of dung to collect," he said, adding that their supply comes from six elephants from the neighbouring Millennium Elephant Foundation which maintains a home for elderly and disabled elephants. The foundation cares for old elephants and nurses injured ones. At the moment the daily supply is sufficient to meet demand. Maximus - the name was derived from the zoological name for the Sri Lankan Elephant "Elephus Maximus Maximus" - pays for the dung at eight rupees a kg as a donation to help the foundation which depends on charity and donations. Apart from using elephant dung, the company also found that many more waste products, that were often just thrown away, could also be used and recycled. Rice, paddy straw, cinnamon and banana bark are all used to add flavour and colour, thus enhancing the products, according to the company. Ranasinghe said 10 kilograms of dung normally produces 40 to 50 boards or 600 to 660 sheets of A4 paper. The price for six sheets of A4 paper is about Rs. 50 The colour varies with the type of food consumed - coconut, kitul (treacle) or Jak. The texture depends on whether the elephant is able to chew the food or not. Fully digested fibre gives the paper a smooth finish while half digested fibre makes the paper coarser. According to Ranjit Serasinghe, one of the founders of Maximus who left the business a few years ago, the elephant has an inefficient digestive tract that results in 60 percent of its food not being digested. Thus the dung is not smelly or mushy unlike dung from other animals. "The other animal that has fibre in the dung is the rhinoceros," he added. The Maximus paper plant churns out paper that is manufactured using a process that promotes environmental protection. It uses 75 percent elephant dung and the rest is recycled waster paper. The
process The pulp is hand lifted from a papermaking vat to a couching table in the form of a thin sheet of pulp. The variations in the elephant's diet, age and dental state give each batch of paper a unique colour and texture, according to company data. Consumers in buying and using this paper, the company says, are helping to contribute to the care of this magnificent animal which is being driven to extinction by the loss of its natural habitat. "By using this paper you can make a difference by highlighting the plight of the majestic elephant," a company statement pasted on its website says. Maximus also manufactures 100 percent recycled handmade paper out of waste paper board, cotton waste, fruit and vegetable fibres along with additives such as paddy husks, dried flowers, straw and other materials. Ranasinghe says their clients are hotels in Sri Lanka and customers from Japan, Australia, US and Canada. In the US, the company supplies visiting cards to top US corporates. Its sales in the US were boosted after then Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in July 2002 gave US President George Bush a box of dung writing paper, envelopes and name cards during a visit to the US. The Maximus chief says he set up the company from scratch - shuttling to and fro from Pinnawela to the Industrial Development Board (IDB), a state-run research and technology centre in southern Moratuwa - for about nine months where the machinery to transform the dung to paper was designed and perfected. As far as marketing was concerned, Ranasinghe was helped by the marketing network maintained by the family's Swastika Printers, which was already selling paper-based products to local hotels. Ranasinghe says that among their priorities is to raise awareness about the tragic circumstances that surround the Sri Lankan elephant. "We are developing strategies aimed at improving the socio - economic situation that currently restricts under privileged people living in rural areas," he said adding that their vision is to bring man and elephant together in a project called "Peace Paper". The company hopes to create autonomous and self-sustaining re-cycling plants that make Elephant dung paper from wild elephant dung. Interest
from India Fact
box This
report is available for perusal if required. The CISIR report detailed
above again concludes that the whole of the Maximus activity and
production processes are environmentally sound. No dyes or chemical
additives are used to produce the Elephant Dung paper. Only non-toxic
soil dyes are used to produce our Earth / Rainbow ranges. No bleaches
are used in any of our products. |
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