Two students from the HCM City University of Technology (HUTECH) show their paper sheets made from elephant dung at the Sai Gon Zoo and Botanical Garden in HCM City. (Photo: tuoitrenews.vn) HCM City (VNS/VNA) — The Sai Gon Zoo and Botanical Garden’s staffand a group of students at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH) are making eco-friendly paper from elephant dung every weekend.
Mai Khac Trung Truc, director of the zoo, said transformingelephant dung into paper has been done in many countries, but it is a new ideain Vietnam.
In the past, the dung was discarded or used as manure. Now, itgets recycled into paper.
Five adult elephants at the zoo have not only served visitors butalso helped produce eco-friendly paper.
“The elephants eat mostly grass, sugar cane and vegetables, sotheir dung is not too smelly, has a lot of fiber and can be used to makepaper,” he said.
The zoo has been recycling elephant dung since February, and thefirst elephant dung paper was produced in April.
“The recycling will help raise awareness about wildlife protectionand teach children to save natural resources and protect the environment,” hesaid.
The process of paper-making is done manuallywithout any industrial chemicals.
The zoo’s employees collect around 800kg of dungfrom the elephants every day in their enclosure, but only five kilos are beingused to make paper every weekend.
The collected dung is washed at least seventimes to remove impurities, leaving only the fiber left for recycling. Thefiber is boiled at 200 degrees Celsius for two hours to kill bacteria andremove odor.
"This is still experimental and nomachinery is used, so we only make several dozen paper sheets at a time,"Truc said.
The boiled fibres are then dried under the sun.The dried fibres are pureed into powder, and then mixed with water, tapiocastarch and some paper pulp.
The mixture is finally poured into A3 and A4paper-size molds and dried for another eight hours to get the final product.
Located on Nguyen Binh Khiem Street in District 1, the Sai Gon Zoois one of the world's oldest zoos and the country's largest zoo and botanicalgarden.
It is home to thousands of plant and animal species, both endemicand foreign./.
