Party at the Poo Poo Paper Park!

After a roaring good time at the Tiger Palace, the Thailand group visited the Elephant Poo Poo Paper Park to learn the history of papermaking and how elephant dung can be transformed into beautiful paper.  The first region in Asia to make paper was China, and the same process is used at this Park, immortalizing this process for 2000+ years and counting.

In addition to making beautiful paper products, the Park is proudly environmentally friendly, sharing their story in hopes to reduce the cutting down of trees and protecting their environment.

This production is completely community-based and sustainable, obtaining their main supplies by trading food to feed the elephants for their dung.

(The group listens and learns about the fibrous properties of the different animal dung, with the elephant dung being the most fibrous and optimal for papermaking)

Once the dung is obtained, it is soaked in water for one day, then boiled for six hours over a wood fire.  Wood is used to reduce air pollution.

(Christina Andros working her muscles to stir the boiling dung)

The dung is then rinsed three times to get rid of excess debris, such as dirt, sand, and rocks.  And the water is not wasted!  Instead, the water is used to water the Park's greenery, reused as fertilizing water.

The soaked and boiled material is then mixed with other fibers or previous paper products, then colored using organic materials such as fruits and flowers.  Finally, the material is molded to form pulp poo balls.

 (Colored pulp poo balls)

Once these pulp poo balls are formed, the real papermaking magic begins!  Here the group tries their hand at papermaking by breaking apart the pulp poo balls with water, atop a paper mold.

(On the left, Christina Curry loosens up the pulp poo ball; on the right, Nicole DaSilva is making sure there are no gaps in the paper, while Daniel Jaracz, Dr. James Krebs, and Maura Brennan assists)

(What a hardworking group!)

After the pulp is loosened and ensured that there are no gaps, the mold is taken out into the open sun to dry for at least five hours.

(Paper sunbathing station!)

 Once the paper is dried, the paper is peeled off the mold, flattened, and cut.  And finally, POO PAPER!

(Here, Dr. James Krebs and Jenifer DeNormandie peel their paper product off the mold)

 (The group with our paper products; beautiful!)

Who knew that poo could be so fun!

(*Special thanks to Christina Andros for being my personal photographer throughout the week; here, we are pictured with our elephant-shaped paper badges made from poo!)