An Australian company is producing paper out of stone in an effort to provide an eco-friendly substitute to traditional pulp-based paper and avoid the destruction of thousands of trees.
Inspired by a company in Taiwan, Kevin Garcia and Jon Tse set up Karst Stone Paper in Sydney to disrupt the paper industry by making “stone paper” using repurposed waste stone from the mining and construction industries.
The stone is crushed to a powder and mixed with a non-toxic, recyclable binding agent. This mixture is then made into pellets which are heated and fed through large rollers to produce paper that is not only clean and white, but also waterproof and tear-resistant. It can be produced to varying thicknesses, from notepaper to cardboard.
This amazing innovation creates a product that is far more sustainable than regular paper because no trees are harmed and no water is used during production.
“We really are using recycled materials that are existing to produce products that have an infinite recyclability factor, and I think that’s really important for the products that we make,” explains Garcia. “The traditional pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy worldwide — 4% of the total energy consumed in today’s world is for making paper. On top of that, it uses more water per ton of product than any other industry.”
He estimates that in 2019 alone, Karst’s production methods helped avoid the felling of 540 large timber trees, the use of 83,100 liters of water and the secretion of 56,218 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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Wonderful news!
I applaud Karst for innovating. I read about this a couple of days ago. This could be epic for our environment.
Basta violenza sugli animali!!!
Fantastic news, and fully recyclable materials s well.Definitely a step in the right direction for a greener world.
That’s fantastic. Some great news for a change. I hope this industry catches on mainstream.
PURE AWESOMENESS…I WISH WE WERE TRY TO SAVE TREES AND STOP KILLING INNOCENT ANIMALS BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE. SUCH A WASTEFUL COUNTRY…
I knew it! Said this years ago to my husband that we’d be running out of rocks just like we are with water. Water’s been a hot commodity for years now. We already pay high prices for certain stones to add “curb appeal” to our homes. I’m glad that they’re not wasting more trees but now rocks will go the same way–sky high prices.
We can grow new trees, thankfully, but we can’t make more rocks. Nature & billions of years made them….
The mindset has to change. The natural world is not here to serve our needs, it is not our slave. We need to have a respectful and loving relationship with the earth, and to learn to distinguish between actual needs and wants. We actually need very little for our survival…but our wants (greed) are endless, which is why we have created economic systems that are based on the totally unsustainable idea of endless growth! And it is not just capitalism…China needs to create hundreds of millions of new jobs every year just to avoid an economic collapse.
I think we need to let it all collapse and start over.
Anything to stop killing the forests, we are a cancer on this planet, we won’t stop till it’s all gone.
Bravo! Congratulations for thinking outside the box and for creating something that is likely to have a tremendous impact on deforestation.
nice idea .. not get their relatives to stop torturing lambs for wool
Another intelligent, solution-oriented innovation that will, without any doubt, be fiercely opposed by the existing wasteful industries.