Tree-Free options by Creative Paper Wales: Sheep Poo Paper

Creative Paper Wales offers papers made from recycled materials via methods "designed to live up to the highest environmental and quality standards possible." Those methods include collecting, boiling, and pounding the cellulose byproducts of the digestive cycle of Welsh sheep: sheep poo, in other words. And the waste from their rendering of this, um, waste becomes a rich liquid fertilizer. How awesome is that?

As every craftsperson will tell you, it all begins by using only the very finest materials. We take great care to collect super-fresh sheep poo from the beautiful (and rainy) mountains of rural Wales and take it back to the mill, situated in southern Snowdonia. We don't just make Sheep Poo Paper™ and for our other papers we use waste paper, rag and textile off-cuts and just about anything else we can think of that has good length cellulose fibers in it. Of course, we don't use tree - we like trees.

Their website's really fun. Not only can you read more about how Sheep Poo paper is made, you can collaborate on one-of a kind papers, show off your DIY skills in their "What to Do with Poo" contest,, and of course shop.

Environmentally speaking, the shipping-related impact of ordering this paper from overseas may outweigh the benefits of its tree-free origin. But perhaps some enterprising papermakers Stateside will follow suit. (We have sheep, don't we?) And I figured Ivy could at least use the tip.

(via BoingBoing)

Tags: recycled, paper, environmental.

[Note: I'm just starting to add tags, so these aren't quite as useful as they eventually will be. Your patience please.]