Paper maker smells money in elephant dung fit for a president

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2004

PINNAWELA, Sri Lanka (AFP) — A group of enterprising Sri Lankans are taking their recycling business to jumbo heights -- by turning elephant dung into paper fit for use even by US President George W. Bush.

Through their company Maximus, named after their chief supplier "elephas maximus", the group's modest paper plant churns through up two tonnes of manure a day.

And its appetite shows no signs of abating, with increased demand for pachyderm paper from Japan, Europe and the United States.

Maximus paper is 75 percent dung, and the rest is recycled cardboard.

"Dung paper is a good conversation piece," said Thusitha Ranasinghe who manages Maximus. "You give someone your business card printed on dung paper and they immediately want to smell it. It is a...