Dung Paper




	Elephant Riding In Chiangmai Maetang Elephant Park and Elephant Clinic


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	Making Paper from Elephant Dung ... Recycling in its most basic form. Recycling has solved the problem of what to do with our Elephants waste and in so doing, we are preventing contaminating the river and or having to pay huge bills for waste disposal.

One of the many activities in Mae Taeng Elephant Park, is the art of papermaking!

Our paper is made from elephant dung! Elephant dung does not smell bad and if it does, then it is an indication that the elephant is ill.

Normal paper is made from ‘chewed up’ fibres and that ios exactly what Elephant dung is ... chewed up fibers. The process is very simple and is also 100% ecologically friendly. Elephants have poor digestive systems and approximately 50% of what they eat comes out the other end! Therefore, the elephants are kindly completing the first stage of paper making for us, breaking up the vegetable matter and getting the fibres.

Elephants eat about 200 – 250 kg of food a day and from that we will get about 50 kg of dung. That will provide about 100 to 120 sheets of paper.

No chemicals are added during the process and it is 100% bacteria free.


	First, the Elephant Dung is collected by hand. A job that usefully employs wives of the Mahout, so bringing in a 2nd income to the family.




		The Dung is then washed by hand and any large fiber’s are removed. Once again we recycle, as these discarded fiber’s are used as fertilizer on local farm land, ensuring NO WASTE.


	After sorting, the remaining fibres are placed in large (recycled oil) drums and boiled for 4 hours, which forms a pulp and effectively kills any bacteria.


		The pulp is then washed for a second time ...


	The fine pulp is then transfered to large vats. Silk screens fastened to a wooden frame are then dipped into the vat and deftly scooped out to leave a thin film of pulp on the screen..


	The screens are then placed in the hot sun for about 12 hours, untill thourghly dry.




		The paper is also used by our talented Elephants like Suda or Charlie, to use when they are painting


				... before being placed into a spinning machine for about 2 hours





						Once dried, the sheets of wonderful paper are peeled off the frames and stored for sale in our shop or for making paper products such as Photo Albums and note pads that we also sell in our shop.

Elephant Riding In Chiangmai

Maetang Elephant Park and Elephant Clinic