Sheep Poo Paper: Saves Trees, Fertilizes Crops, Revives Dying Epistolary Art

It doesn’t get much more environmentally friendly than this—and it definitely doesn’t get more down-to-earth. A small company in Wales, having realized that

a) you can make paper out of pretty much any kind of cellulose fiber,
b) sheep only digest 50% of the cellulose fibers they eat, leaving lots of it in their poo, and
c) there is a lot of sheep poo lying around in rural Wales,

put the numbers together and came up with the obvious: paper made out of sheep poo.

After being boiled, washed, beaten, and blended into a pulp, “traditional paper making techniques” are used to transform what was once mere dung into a wordsmith’s dream. Bonus: the paper-making process produces a useful by-product, a liquid fertilizer that the company distributes to farmers in the area.

You can buy plain paper, bookmarks, postcards, maps of Wales, and even wedding stationery made out of sheep poo from Creative Paper Wales, which will ship its eccentric, but strangely appealing, products all over the world. Perhaps the most ironic item available for sale in their online store is a line of sheep poo air fresheners. It’s not clear how they infuse these with the clean scent of the Welsh countryside, but infuse them they do. Whatever their secret, it’s all great news for those of us who love writing, the environment, and a good cocktail party story.

The News and Events portion of the site is worth a look. Recently, for instance, they announced that an employee had completed a Masters Degree in Law after having handed in all his essays—and his dissertation—on sheep poo paper (it just doesn’t get any less fun to type that). Also, the corporate team behind this genius product is currently working on developing a waterproof, seaworthy sheep poo paper coating (poo floats) for a wooden canoe they built. They hope to paddle all the way from Wales to France on Sheep. Poo. Paper. The project is a fundraising stunt for charity; if you have any spare pennies left over after you stock up on You Know What, you can help out here.

P.S. Keep your eyes on the site: come Christmas time, the company also produces a holiday line of Reindeer Poo paper.