Elephant poo paper (no, really)
You're going to have to bear with me here, because I'm not making this up. In Hemel Hempstead - home of the roundabout and Captain Happy - there's a company called Ellie Poo that pays Sri Lankans to collect elephant dung, boil the poo down to pulp and then export it to the UK for recycling into paper. The poo paper's then made into cute cards like the £3 one pictured, plus a whole range of other excrement stationery gifts. Surreal, certainly. But also spotlessly ethical. The Sri Lankans get employment (albeit collecting crap), 5 per cent of Ellie Poo's profits go back to the collectors, plus the paper's recycled and biodegradable. In the process, Sri Lankans get a very practical cash reason to look after their small-eared Asian elephants, which are on the Red List of endangered species. Ellie Poo's website.
Only problem is the distance. If the paper was used in Sri-Lanka, this would be even better.
Posted by: MGR | July 22, 2005 8:31 AM