Nov 4: A Japanese zoo is finding a new use for animal waste, turning the waste into a new line of notebooks and memo pads.
A close look at the souvenir writing pads at the Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido reveals what looks like grass in the paper. It’s made from the excrement of giraffes and hippos at the zoo.
A zoo worker says feces are the best way to judge an animal’s health. Since they normally just throw the poop away, using it to make paper is helping the environment.
A local paper recycler extracts the fiber from the poop of the plant eaters, which is washed, sanitized, and turned into a paper that one reporter described as “fluffy” and smells like grass, but doesn’t stink at all. The finished product, which is helping the zoo celebrate its 50th anniversary, is a high-quality product, which reminded one woman of Japanese craft paper. The only problem, the zoo has found, is that paper supply is directly affected by the animals’ output.
Wthr.com