This picture perfect gift wrap is not made of something you could imagine even if you were to take the wildest guess. Try a “domestic” guess you might hit it right by chance. Well, its made of elephant’s dung. I’m sure to get wry expressions for that, but it is true. The product does not give even the slightest hint of its source that is to say, it shares no phenotypic feature of dung or doesn’t even smell like it. It is rightly called the ‘poo poo paper’.
I’ve heard animal’s organic wastes can be used as cooking fuel, to produce biogas and as manure but nothing like this. To get the impeccable look that we see in the picture, the elephant’s dung is collected and processed – it is first rinsed, mixed with plant fiber into a pulp, then rolled out and dried to make a rough-textured paper. The whole processing including packaging is done in Thailand, the proceedings of which is contributed towards elephant conservation.
Elephants being the National animal of Thailand, and their numbers decreasing alarmingly, this is just one step but a leap. Coming to look at it, in a way, the elephants themselves are contributing towards their conservation. I think the idea and effort is not only new and for a cause, but is sure to prick people’s conscience. ‘Poo poo gift wrappers’ are available at the Natural History Museum shop.
via : Hippyshopper
