Mr. Ellie Pooh is a company that was founded by Karl Wald after he visited and spent time in Sri Lanka, home to an estimated global total of 40,000 Asian elephants in the wild. Wild elephant populations in Sri Lanka have been greatly diminishing over the past 50 years due to the animals grazing and being killed for threatening farmer’s crops. Wald’s company manufactures stationary paper and gifts made from 75 percent elephant dung and 25 percent post-consumer paper.
Along with providing an eco-friendly, low-impact product, Wald’s business is attempting to save the animals by making them an asset to Sri Lankan villagers, who are hired to turn the dung into paper by hand. So far, Mr. Ellie Pooh has created about 250 jobs.
The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company is another company that is turning elephant droppings into a variety of paper goods. They collect the dung from elephant conservation parks and turn it into their line of Poo Poo Paper products. The company contributes a percentage of the sale of its products to welfare and conservation efforts for endangered elephants.
And, if you’d like to give a unique spin on the traditional gift of sending flowers to that special someone in your life, you can order a bouquet of paper flowers made from elephant dung. A company called Uncommon Goods makes the bouquets in a variety of flower styles and colors.
It’s also good to know that all of the companies producing elephant dung paper claim the products are odorless!
Some ways we can all take part in the ecopreneurial spirit include asking your local greeting card companies and zoos to carry Mr. Ellie Pooh or other elephant dung paper products and using them yourself to make business cards and when sending out thank-yous and invitations.
