We often say that "we regard money as excrement." Feces is a thing that is despised. It can be used to describe anything that is not good and cheap. Feces will never be considered elegant. However, in many countries and regions, some animal feces are treated as treasures and reused to make money, and some are even turned into national gifts or "life-saving straw" to feed the country. The world is so wonderful, and nature's gifts to people Survival is an interesting thing.
Many Sri Lankan dignitaries and businessmen will politely present a business card when meeting foreign guests, and specifically emphasize: "My business card is made of elephant dung." Smell it , not only does it not stink, but it has a light fragrance. Sri Lanka's elephant orphanages were once troubled by the mountains of elephant dung. Now, these elephant dung are turned into exquisite "elephant dung paper" and become Sri Lanka's national gift.
Piles of feces are like mountains of gold
A papermaking workshop run by a Sri Lankan businessman happens to be next to Sri Lanka’s “Elephant Orphanage”, which houses nearly a hundred elephants. Elephant lost from the herd. Initially, the raw materials for this workshop were mainly waste paper and straw collected from door to door. One day, he met the person in charge of the elephant orphanage. The person in charge was worried about the mountains of elephant dung that piled up every day. He half-jokingly said that it would be great if elephant dung could also be used to make paper. The businessman, who was worried about the insufficient supply of raw materials at the time, said nothing and carried a basket of elephant dung back to the workshop for the workers to process. After filtering and cleaning, crushing and beating, screening and dehydration, pressing, drying and calendering, the bright elephant dung paper miraculously appeared. This unexpected discovery made the businessman extremely excited. The piles of elephant dung he saw in the elephant orphanage during the day seemed to have turned into mountains of gold. That night, he decided to register his workshop as a paper company and named the company after the last word in the scientific name of the Asian elephant, namely "Maximus".
The elephant orphanage no longer has to worry about the endless cleaning of elephant dung. Today, elephant dung has become "precious dung". People even jokingly said: "Where is the dung?" Wherever there is money."
The color of paper is related to elephant food
In fact, elephant dung is not so "ugly", it is golden in color. , there is no fishy smell in itself. There are two main colors of elephant dung paper in Sri Lanka, which are closely related to the elephants’ food: one is dark paper, which is made from the dung of elephants that eat palm leaves; the other is light-colored paper, which is made from It is the dung of elephants that eat coconuts. The cost of elephant dung paper is low, but the output is astonishingly high. Under normal circumstances, an adult elephant excretes more than 100 kilograms of dung every day, and 1 kilogram of elephant dung can produce more than 60 sheets of A4-sized paper. Although 75% of the raw materials in elephant dung paper are elephant dung, due to the special process, the product not only has no smell, but also has a very delicate feel.
Making paper from elephant dung not only brings considerable economic benefits to the elephant orphanage and local workers, but also brings honor to Sri Lanka, a war-torn country. In 2006, in the "World Challenge" competition held in the Netherlands, elephant dung paper won the championship with its superhuman creativity of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, effective utilization and protection of wild animal resources.
The Bushes received letterheads written on elephant dung paper
Today, elephant dung paper has become a national treasure that Sri Lankans are proud of. Many celebrities and dignitaries use elephant dung paper as their business cards. There are also many high-end hotels using elephant dung paper to create "check-in instructions" and unique menus. Elephant dung paper was once packaged as exquisite national gifts by the Sri Lankan government and presented to foreign dignitaries. When the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka visited the United States in 2002, he specially selected a batch of elephant dung paper. Bush received a box of letter paper, envelopes and business cards made of gold-plated elephant dung paper, Laura received a set of elephant dung paper letterheads, and Powell received aromatic elephant dung paper with cinnamon and banana peels added.
Sri Lanka is home to a large number of elephants, providing ample raw materials. Today, Sri Lanka’s elephant dung paper has been exported to countries such as Europe, America and Japan. Many countries have followed suit. Thailand also uses elephant dung to make paper, and zoos in the United States have also tried it. In addition to using elephant dung to make paper, German zoos also extract paints from elephant dung.