People thought Sri Lankan entrepreneur\u00a0Thusitha Ranasinghe had gone crazy when he suggested his idea of\u00a0producing paper from elephant dung.\u00a0\u201cNot that I can blame them,” he chuckles.<\/p>\n
But the man had seen a program\u00a0about a ranger in Kenya, who made a kind of papyrus from elephant dung. Inspiration struck and\u00a0Ranasinghe vowed to turn what seemed like a far-fetched dream into reality. He launched\u00a0his eco-firm Maximus about a decade ago, with just\u00a0seven workers and a small factory near Kegalle, about 85 kilometers from Colombo.<\/p>\n
Today, his firm employs\u00a0rural villagers to collect elephant dung, mixes this with other waste material, and produces high-quality recycled paper.<\/p>\n
The raw material, Ranasinghe notes, is ideal. Grass and leaves eaten by\u00a0 elephants adds texture to the finished stock, most of which is turned into greeting cards or hotel stationary and menus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first question, always, is what does it smell like?\u201d chuckles Ranasinghe. Actually, the paper has no smell thanks to a 10-day process that begins with washing the dung, then boiling the mixture. \u201cIt took a long time to get right, nearly nine months.”<\/p>\n
Profits from poo paper are small, he concedes, but that\u2019s not the point. Adding value to elephants is the goal. \u201cPeople can see that now,\u201d Ranasinghe says proudly. \u201cWe\u2019re winning them over.\u201d<\/p>\n