Da Goddess

Turning Crap Into Profit

A group of enterprising Sri Lankans are taking their recycling business to jumbo heights - by turning elephant dung into paper. 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 US. Maximus paper is 75 per cent 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 good ice breaker." The deodorised paper has no trace of the raw material, although a connoisseur may be able to say what the elephant had for dinner by looking at the paper's fibres. Since its inception in 1997, Maximus is going from strength to strength. Its seven-strong workforce has now mushroomed into 122 employees, mostly from Pinnawela. And they do not have to travel too far to restock with the freshest of supplies. Pinnawela is home to the world's first elephant orphanage, the state-run facility boasting more than 60 living recycling machines. * AFP

And here you'd thought you'd seen everything.