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Company Makes Paper Out Of Wombat Poo 71

Posted by samzenpus from the my-test-smells-funny dept.
Creative Paper attracted worldwide interest for its paper made of kangaroo droppings in 2005. Well it's been four years and the best and brightest at Creative Paper haven't been sitting on their laurels. What's their great new idea? They have now launched a kind of paper made from wombat poo. Scat-obsessed Darren Simpson from Creative Paper says the paper is green or gold depending on the time of year the droppings are harvested. The wombat paper will be unveiled at an international paper conference in Burnie, Australia later this month.

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Company Makes Paper Out Of Wombat Poo More

Company Makes Paper Out Of Wombat Poo

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  • God bless people with way to much time to sniff around trying to find new green ideas. I say God bless em, cause I don't think anyone wants to print on Womby poo paper any more than people want to print on Kangaroo droppings...

    Small Child: Look daddy! Skippy made a gift card!!

    • Clearly the best use of this will be toilet paper for wombats, not for writing on.

    • Nothing new here (Score:5, Interesting)

      by EmbeddedJanitor ( 597831 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2009 @08:52PM (#27072655)
      This is as old as paper making. Fibrous shit from grazers and browsers makes wonderful paper and saves pulping the wood. In Africa I've seen paper made from elephant, rhino, giraffe and zebra shit. In New Zealand I've seen sheep and horse.

      • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I have to know, why do you travel the world seeking out poo paper?

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by eln ( 21727 )

        Maybe, but the wombat is an inherently funnier animal than any of those. In green technology, humor value counts for more than you might think. I hear the next project is kookaburra poo paper.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bjb ( 3050 ) *
        I have a card on my shelf from a buddy that was made from elephant dung.

        (the card, not the buddy)

        Worth pointing out that he's in the paper industry, so his coming across this stuff isn't too far of a stretch for him.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by db32 ( 862117 )
      Just to reply to your sig. Because you were dumb enough to pay off your debt (as was I). It would seem that paying off your debt has become the new short term plan rather than the long term. I maintained good credit, low debt, and got a house of a good value that was within my financial reach using a loan with really good terms...now I can't get the free handouts. :( My next plan is to run up my debt to astronomical levels and then fly to DC to beg for a bailout. I figure the real trick is if you can s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bi_boy ( 630968 )
        ...what?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Hellpop ( 451893 )

        You forgot one thing... Make sure you don't pay your taxes.

        That can get you very far from what I've seen.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by db32 ( 862117 )
          I think you have to get elected for that first. They are quick to raid people who refuse to pay taxes. They got Capone that way. I can't figure out how it is that all the little congress critters are allowed to say "oops" and cut a check. I bet Capone would have been more than happy to just cut a check.
  • It's the fact there is an international paper conference that made me scratch my head.
    • Why is it weird that the paper industry has conferences just like pretty much any other industry?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dov_0 ( 1438253 )

      It's the fact there is an international paper conference that made me scratch my head.

      It's a huge, worldwide industry with a stack of money involved and various technologies applied. What's to scratch your head about?

  • O.o ...please, no gift cards out of these. (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    And whatever you do, don't lick the envelope.

  • I think the significant part of the article is that the paper comes in Green or Gold ... Australia's favourite colours.

  • Lets use it to make toilet paper.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by raddan ( 519638 )
      I used to buy the recycled brown toilet paper and tell my housemates that it was recycled *from* toilet paper, thus pretty much ensuring that they wouldn't use it at all (girls, I can assure you, use vastly more T.P. than men). They were pretty much horrified of the stuff. Now T.P. actually made from poo... I love it!
    • And here I was thinking the best use would be for Washington to write our laws on.

  • It'd be interesting to know the differences between various paper manufacturing methods and how much "energy" or whatever is actually used. In other words, is the creation of this "green" paper from wombat poo actually any better than using renewable tree resources?

    • Re:Work taken to turn into paper? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jmorris42 ( 1458 ) * <jmorris@[ ]u.org ['bea' in gap]> on Wednesday March 04, 2009 @09:33PM (#27073039)

      > In other words, is the creation of this "green" paper from wombat poo actually any better than using renewable tree resources?

      I think you are totally missing the point of green. A green program is a success when the green's self esteem is raised. It's all about them proving they care more than we do. Whether it works is a side question with an unusual twist. If it actually works, i.e. some filthy capitalist can make money at it, then it has to be bad. Won't be six months until it is deemed not green any more and thus evil.

      Think I'm being overly cynical? Nah. If we really cared about reducing carbon we would be on a crash building program for nuke plants. There are protesters railing against nuke, solar, wind, geothermal (yes they even hate geothermal!), hydroelectric, biofuels, tidal you name it and there is a green organization already against it. Let an alternative get practical and they all turn on it. See hydroelecric.

      • "Think I'm being overly cynical?"

        No, you're just displaying a lack of intelligence.

        The world is full of billions of people all with different opinions and ideas. There tend to be people both for and against basically anything imaginable, whether itâ(TM)s civil infrastructure or football tactics. Making generalized statements like yours just signifies a distinct lack of analytical ability.

    • "is the creation of this "green" paper from wombat poo actually any better than using renewable tree resources?"

      Whilst I have no figures, I would have thought a most definite yes when considering the enormous amount of effort usually required to produce paper from trees (which require a lot of labour, land and fertilizer to plant, harvest and transport). That's before all the effort then required to convert the wood first into woodchips and then into pulp.

      Whether or not paper from poo could be carried out o

      • considering the enormous amount of effort usually required to produce paper from trees (which require a lot of labour, land and fertilizer to plant, harvest and transport). That's before all the effort then required to convert the wood first into woodchips and then into pulp.

        Whilst they don't eats trees, what do these animals eat? To produce paper on a commercial level, you'll need a lot of poop, so you need a lot of Wombats, and a lot of food for them. Then you have a major effort to collect the poo and al

  • I've always hated it when people lick their fingers when counting bank notes, or when turning pages in a book...

    If this doesn't put a stop to it, I don't know what will.

  • It's a True WOMBAT! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It's a True WOMBAT!

    Note: WOMBAT == Waste Of Money Brains and Time.

  • What happened to..you know, hemp?

  • Sweet! (Score:2)

    by svnt ( 697929 )

    Finally there is a solution for the worldwide shortage of cellulose.

    Forests and paper mills are so 19th century - bring on the wombat crap farms!

  • only in tasmania

  • Valentine's Day Cards: Imagine the Possibilities! (Score:5, Funny)

    by linuxmeepster ( 1383107 ) * on Wednesday March 04, 2009 @08:28PM (#27072423) Homepage

    I'm going to make a fortune selling Valentine's Day cards made out of wombat poo paper. Imagine sending this beautiful poem:

    Roses are red
    Violets are blue
    This card is made
    Out of wombat poo

    Instant success! Especially if you hand it to her and say, "this card reminded me of you".

    I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight...

    • Yea we all love to laugh at poo jokes. However it is actually a good idea. These plant eating animals do most of the work for us of breaking down vegetable matter into the raw fiber. The paper making process is in essence a big digestion system. So we just fill it in and clean out the nasty stuff, you probably have a good material.

  • It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

    I would like them to try that with grue poo. :P

  • ...is that they used wombat poo. People have been making paper from elephant poo for years.

    http://www.poopoopaper.com/ [poopoopaper.com]

  • Just the thing (Score:3, Funny)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2009 @09:44PM (#27073135)
    For sending anniversary greeting to your ex! Accompanied, of course, by the obligatory dead flowers!
  • The only tool that can be used to write on this paper is a #2 pencil.
  • Reminds me of moose garden that made paper out of moose droppings since 1999 http://www.moosegarden.com/404-16-112.html [moosegarden.com]

  • "Used for communication"??? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymusing ( 1450747 ) on Thursday March 05, 2009 @07:27AM (#27075915)

    FTA: "Mr Simpson says they are careful to use only scats from wombats in captivity, because animals in the wild use them for communication."

    And now, apparently, they want humans to use their poop for communication. Clearly it's a conspiracy by wombats, trying to take over the media...

  • I can finally get rid of that pile in my backyard.

    The neighbors were beginning to complain.

  • Is it safe, have there been studies made to review what happens to your hands after 10 years or so of handling this "paper". I would be curious to see, you can get certain diseases from handling excrement or certain types, I would like to know the process with which they create it, is there a certain amount of processing that goes to neutralize the offending bacteria/viruses?

  • Most of my company's memos have been made out of bullshit for years.
  • Somebody should write this shit down.

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