Luxury stationery makes use of waste

Apr 23 2009 By Katy Gordon

AN AUSTRALIAN man has found a novel way of going green – by making luxury stationery from wombat dung.

Darren Simpson, who has brought new meaning to the term “waste paper” uses the dung from wombat “Nugget” to create the envelopes and paper, which was launched last month.

Simpson told the AFP: "It's not your normal poo. It's not round or long -- it's actually little bricks and it's very, very fibrous.

"When you break it open, basically what you can see through it is plant matter. So they're a good little pulper."

Simpson, helped by Nugget’s handlers, collects the excrement and boils them to fibres that make up the paper.

The sterilised waste is then combined with cotton fibres to create sheets of paper.

Depending on the time of year, the produce has a different hue, with a green tinge in winter and yellow in summer.

This is the latest in a line of odd inventions by Simpson, including “roo poo paper” made from kangaroo dung.

He also has plans to expand his line to include wombat poo picture albums and journals.

Information for the story courtesy of Yahoo News - http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090421/od_afp/australiaanimalwombatoffbeat_20090421155858