momoese

The other day my wife came home from Whole foods Market with a gift for me, a notebook made from Banana fiber! Totally cool!! It has a nice look and feel to it although it is very expensive. They claim that one ton of banana fiber saves an estimated 17 trees.

Here is their website.
http://www.ecopaper.com/tree-free-pa...k-banana-paper

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Mitchel

MediaHound

Saving trees sounds like a plan to me!

lorax

It's actually pretty easy to make banana paper.... It helps if you have a mulcher, though.

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I speak for the trees.

mskitty38583

recycle and reuse! anything to save trees! thats why im excited to find this nana paper. ill use it for school next semester!

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"kokomo" beach boys:

mskitty38583

i bookmarked the page. thank you very much. ill be the only one at school next semester with nana paper. wahoo! it is a bit expensive but if it saves trees im all for spending a little more on it. ill have to order some for my daughter for school too i dont think ill get the mango paper, i might end up snacking on it between classes! lol!

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WELCOME TO THE GATOR NATION
"kokomo" beach boys:

BIGDAWG69

Actually most of the trees used in paper production were planted just for that very purpose. The paper companies are some of the largest landholders and they plant the trees. Old growth timber is rarely cut for paper as it would be too big. Even the so called recycled paper has at least 65% virgin pulp 35% post consumer waste. using 100% post consumer waste wouldnt work because the wood fibers lose strength during the repulping process and this would make the paper sheet to brittle to even run on the machine, much less make a usable product such as liner board or corrugated boxes from.

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lorax

This post is in response to someone called dbvais, who PM'd me, but to whom I cannot reply to in PM for whatever reason.

Here's how I make banana paper.

It's fairly easy if you have a mulcher, and a bit more labour intensive if you don't.

Either way, you need to chop the fibre of the stalks and leaves up fairly fine - think pieces of 1" length or less. Then put this along with enough water to more than float the fibre into a cauldron (or at least a honking big pot) and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. I like to do this outdoors, since the smell is not the world's most appetizing.

Once it's boiled for about half an hour, take it off the fire and go in there with eggbeaters and whip it good until all of the little fibres have separated. As it cools, you'll be able to go in with your hands and help this process along. At the end you should have a pulpy slurry.

Now comes the part where you actually form up the sheets. You need screens to do this; I used to use old silkscreens, but you can just buy fine mesh and encase it in wooden frames. I make fairly large sheets all at once; if you make your own screens you can control the size of the finished paper.

Now for the really messy part - be sure to do this outdoors. Take a ladle and gently ladle the pulpy mixture onto the screens, spreading lightly and trying to make sure that you get a consistent thickness of pulp, no more than 1 milimeter (1/16th of an inch) across the entire screen. Allow this to drip off flat. I have a special table that I've made, which is just edges that I can rest the screens on, and no flat surface. My paper drips out onto the ground below it. Once it's half dry, I take fitted blocks of super-smooth wood, slot them into the screens one to each side, and press the paper under large heavy rocks. This creates a smooth and a toothed surface to the paper. It's not a necessary step, but since I use the paper for painting and sketching I like the finish.

In South Ecuador, it's so dry and windy that paper dries in one day, in the North it takes two if it doesn't rain. Once it's most of the way dry, gently peel it off of the screens and hang it by clothespins on a line to finish the drying process.

If you press, one side of your finished paper will be very smooth, and the other will have a mild tooth. If you don't press, both sides will have tooth (roughness.)

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I speak for the trees.

Carolina

When I lived in Panama, they used banana paper to wrap all the fruits at the chinese market. As teenagers, we used it for rolling paper. Quite harsh!
No, I'm not ashamed to admit it. That was a long time ago.