Successful business made from elephant dung (11 photos). The most expensive coffee in the world is made from elephant excrement. Elite Vietnamese coffee drink - Luwak from the droppings of the musang animal.
In general, today I’m telling you how in Sri Lanka they make paper from elephant poop (sorry, but I somehow don’t like the word “feces”)
Right on the territory of the elephant nursery there is a factory for processing elephant poop, although “factory” is what they call themselves. In fact, a small house with one huge room, and a backyard where everything happens. To prevent tourists from mistaking this factory for an ordinary house, the outside walls are painted with pictures of the process “What an elephant eats and what happens to this food later.” There is a man on duty near the door of the house who very persistently invites tourists to come inside. I somehow didn’t really want to go in, but the barker really asked, “Just come in and look, it’s free,” and his conviction that everything “smells good” convinced me to go in and satisfy my exorbitant curiosity. Of course, there was a trick later - after they show and tell you everything, you will be taken to a shop where all the souvenirs are made from elephant poop. To be fair, I will say that some 
the things were pretty nice, but the price…. Everything is designed for wealthy tourists. I’m “hungry” about buying a notebook for 45 bucks, and even more so when I think about what it’s made of, the price generally seems exorbitant. In general, I didn’t buy anything, but I found out everything and took pictures, which I’m sharing.
First, elephant poop is collected from throughout the reserve and dried. Dried poop does not smell (I confirm :)), because elephants are vegetarians. By the way, in appearance they look very much like cows; in Crimea we have such piles, only smaller in size, lying all over the steppe. Only in Crimea they used to dry them and heat stoves with them in winter, because cows are also vegetarians and their dried poop does not smell. But let's get back to the elephant piles.
So, dried poop is placed in a special vat and boiled (all this happens in the backyard) for 2 
days on low heat. In this way, bacteria are removed from these raw materials. Then the mass is poured into a large blender and brought until smooth for 2 hours. It turns out something like a grayish paste. Now it's time to make sheets of paper, and from them everything else is made, right down to the figurines (pressed paper). Part of the mass is left gray, because many tourists prefer “all-natural” products. For other tourists, the paper is made differently 
colored using natural dyes. Paint is added to the gray mass, most often obtained from flowers (orchids, lilies, roses, hydrangeas).
Now the mixture is poured into special molds. They are large rectangular frames with a fine mesh instead of a bottom. Excess slurry drains off, leaving a thin layer on the surface of the mesh. It is dried under open air- this is how sheets of paper are made from elephant poop. The paper is hard, so it is put through a special press to make it soft (although it is still 
equals stiffer and thicker than regular paper).
Now what do they make from this into paper? Several girls are sitting in the room, painting paper, making stamps... in general, all kinds of crafts. Gray paper is most often used for wall calendars and notepads. Colored - for all other crafts. Sometimes the paper is cut into small pieces and figurines are made (like papier-mâché), and the figurines are most often in the form of an elephant, which either replenishes its stomach or empties it.
And now a few more photos.
In Sri Lanka, they organized an unusual, but very profitable business on... elephant dung. Of course, their whole life there is built around elephants! In every hotel, in every corner of the country, all the entertainment for tourists is elephants. And then someone came up with such a bright idea - to make paper from elephant cakes!
And this paper, as well as numerous products made from it, fly away with a bang. Like hot cakes, excuse me for the inelegant comparison)
Firstly, all elephant manure is collected from the fields, washed and dried. Now it doesn’t smell, you can touch it, but we didn’t do it just in case there was a fireman.
Then the substance is again filled with water, fermented, and heated until it reaches the desired consistency. Just in case, this happens behind bars, since the properties of elephant dung are not fully understood, and there is a fear that a new dangerous form of life may arise there.
Then in special bathrooms it is all settled and mulched. If you touch the substrate with your hand for a long time at this stage, a mustache will grow.
That's it, now you can touch and even write on the liquid without fear. The paper is almost ready, it's time to dry it. To do this, it is poured into special forms and left in the sun.
After a couple of days, the almost finished product is taken out and passed through bulky hand presses.
It turned out to be quite real paper. The truth is very relief and textured. The inclusions are apparently the remains of the breeding elephant's breakfast)
Now we need to make a product out of this paper that tourists will like. Basically, these are, of course, notebooks, envelopes and albums.
The most expensive coffee in the world, called Black Tusk, is made from coffee beans eaten and digested by Thai elephants, and costs $1,100 per kg. The exotic drink has a rich, soft taste thanks to the digestion process in the intestines of the elephant.
“When an elephant eats coffee beans, the acid in its stomach breaks down the proteins in the coffee, which gives the drink a bitter taste,” the experts explained. “The result is coffee with a very smooth taste without the bitterness of a typical drink.”
The most expensive and delicious coffee in the world is very similar to another type of coffee, Kopi Luwak, which is obtained from the excrement of musang animals. However, the elephant's stomach has a slight advantage in this regard. On average, it takes the animal about 15–30 hours to digest the coffee berries, which are simmered along with bananas, sugar cane and other ingredients in a typical elephant's vegetarian diet to create a unique, rich and fruity flavor.
This rare type of coffee can be tasted only at four resorts in the world: three in the Maldives and one in Thailand, and a cup of this drink is not cheap - $50.
Why is it so expensive? Firstly, keeping elephants in a reserve is expensive. Secondly, the elephants are fed only Thai Arabica coffee grown at an altitude of 1500 m. In addition, the elephants need to eat about 32 kg of coffee fruits to produce 1 kg of coffee beans.
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There is a rather rude expression in the Russian language that says that you can’t make candy out of shit.
Today I will tell you about one of the most memorable places in Thailand, where they show how they make... well, if not candy, then at least very cute and interesting things from the waste of elephants in Thailand.
In the North of Thailand, next to one of the largest tourist centers country, the city of Chiang Mai has an open-air museum where the entire process of making paper from elephant waste is shown. The company is called Poopoopaper, which translated means paper made from, sorry, poop. But wait, turn your nose up, in fact, everything there is very interesting and not at all disgusting.
In fact, the basis of any paper is cellulose, that is, plant fibers. Since elephants' diet is plant-based and contains a very high percentage of fiber, someone came up with the idea of using elephant dung to make paper. Whether this was a necessity, or just a successful marketing ploy, one can only guess, but the result was very interesting and this company successfully exists both in Thailand itself and beyond its borders.
So, how does the process of turning elephant dung into works of art work?
First, the elephant cakes are dried in the sun.
By the way, in this form they do not smell at all and do not get dirty.
Then they are boiled. During the cooking process, all non-fibrous substances are separated - pebbles, dirt, leaves, etc. And within 4-6 hours of cooking, the fiber turns into a homogeneous porridge-like substance. Cooking occurs at a temperature of 90-100 degrees to kill all possible bacteria.
No chemicals are used, only water. The water remaining after cooking can be reused for cooking the next batch, or can be used to water and fertilize the garden.
To make the paper itself, they use the same method that was used in the homeland of paper in China.
The fiber pulp is spread on a special mesh and left to dry in the sun.
Once the paper is dry, it is ready to use.
At this stage, two options are possible - manual production and using technology. When distributing paper pulp over the surface of the mesh manually, the final version turns out to be quite uneven with a bumpy surface. But if you increase the cooking time, grind the resulting slurry with a blender and distribute it onto screens on an industrial line, you will get a much smoother and more familiar paper.
Poopoopaper are very proud of their environmentally friendly production and absolute environmental friendliness. At all stands telling about the stages of paper creation, emphasis is placed on this. In addition to the processes of producing paper from elephant waste, it tells about the history of the origin and production of paper in general.
You can move freely around the territory and touch any exhibits you like; no one limits your freedom.
At the end of the exhibition, for an additional small fee, you will be offered to make a souvenir with your own hands and according to your own design.
You can make a photo frame or notebook, decorating it with ready-made figures, or cut something out as you wish.
It should be especially interesting for children; at least for me, these applications vividly reminded me of crafts in kindergarten.
And if you don’t feel like experimenting creatively, here in the store there is a huge selection of ready-made souvenirs - notebooks, notebooks, beads and earrings, postcards, etc.
The museum is not large, if you wish, you can walk around it all in 10-15 minutes, but it is very interesting, so if you are in Chiang Mai, I highly recommend it!
I think you can guess that we are not talking about Napoleon here, but still about an elephant. And what he does on the field, everyone also guesses about the processes of his nutrition and digestion, as well as his excretory system.
Thailand and elephants are once again surprising and delighting the world.
It turns out that elephants can not only help people with hard work, entertain people with treks through the jungle, play polo and football, even draw, compete in running and throwing darts, and act out scenes of ancient battles.
What else are elephants useful for? Many tourists know that you can buy paper, various albums and notebooks made from elephant dung as a souvenir.
It’s hard to say now who first came up with the idea of making paper from poop.
However, I think there is one story about India worth telling.
One Indian businessman, while walking along the road to the temple near the Amber Palace in Jaipur, tells The Los Angeles Times, looked at a pile of elephant dung into which he had just nearly fallen and noticed that the texture of the herbivore's dung was very similar to wood.
“Eureka!” he thought. “Elephant poop paper.”
At that time, Vijender Shekhawat was 29 years old, producing handmade paper from cotton and struggling to make ends meet.
His family thought differently: “A complete fool.”
The Shekhawat dynasty came from the warrior caste. Yes, of course, the family has fallen into a bit of decline, but what will the neighbors think?
According to Shekhawat's mother, their ancestors once sat on the throne and the only thought,
which came to their minds about their son’s idea:
"How low we have fallen!"
Shekhawat's main buyer was also skeptical.
“This is too strange,” thought Mahima Mehra, director of paper production at Papeterie Co.
“This is simply ridiculous.” But Shekhawat stubbornly continued to experiment.
Paper made from 100% manure fell apart, 50% manure and 50% cotton was too fragile.
And finally, after many months, he found the right combination: 75% manure - 25% cotton.
Don't worry, the manure is washed first.
By then, Mehra had also backed the idea after researching the market.
It turned out that similar paper is already made in Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and other places.
To combat cynics, they cited Ganesha - the elephant-headed Hindu deity - saying there could be no harm in recycled divine waste.
"In our country, religion is everything. Suddenly, many people wanted to work with this paper," says Mehra.
Initially, there were difficulties in collecting raw materials, but Shekhawat solved this problem by feeding the numerous elephants that are used by mahouts to guide tourists in Jaipur. The quality of the raw materials improved, and everyone, including the drivers, was satisfied.
Initial attempts to outsource marketing to a German company failed.
The Germans were too serious for such a product.
"You can't be boring, you have to be funny with this kind of material," Mehra said.
And they decided to sell it themselves.
"Made from the best elephant dung in India" is written on the packaging of Haathi Chaap brand paper.
(elephant seal).
According to Mehra, some customers say "Ouch!" and refuse to touch her,
but the majority smile and hardly think about the smell.
"Once we explain how it's done, they absolutely love the idea."
The smell is truly indistinguishable, according to a journalist from The Los Angeles Times.
First, the manure is washed, then brought to a boil, adding salt and baking soda to moderate the smell.
This mass is beaten, sifted, and rolled into sheets. The final stage is drying, which takes from one day to a week during the rainy season.
Shekhawat experimented for some time: he tried feeding turmeric to elephants in the hope of creating yellow paper.
Did not work out.
He now adds organic colorings at the end of the process, including beet juice for the red paper, dried pomegranate skin for the gray and castor oil for the green.
Shekhawat's enterprise has been in existence for 8 years. He now produces 2,000 2-by-3-foot sheets weekly, which he sells to the United States and Europe.
Shekhawat has always had a penchant for charity. “As a child, he gave his lunch to the poor,” says his mother, “
Now he dreams of moving his workshop to the countryside to provide jobs for women who have little chance of leaving home, and to become an example for entrepreneurs."
“Call it God's providence or luck, but many things have fallen into place and I feel blessed,” says the successful businessman.
“They used to think I was stupid, now they think I’m a genius.”
Canadian entrepreneur Michael Flancman was also considered crazy by his partners when, in 2002, he brought from Thailand the idea of making paper products from elephant dung.
Today, Michael and his wife Tan's company, The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company, produces albums, notebooks, notebooks, photo frames, wrapping paper, bags and cards.
In addition to elephant poop, Elephant Poo uses horse and cow droppings, as well as panda excrement.
Products that are friendly to health and the environment are an inspiration for the couple.
They believe they have found the balance between environmental responsibility and commercial profitability, an approach that our planet so desperately needs today.
Michael and Tan Flankman also find it incredibly funny to sell poop for Everyday life.
In their opinion, one should not take oneself too seriously.
Thais, as always, treat everything with humor.
And I am with him, and with a great love for big animals.
The technological process of paper production in Thailand goes something like this.
The most unpleasant stage of the entire production can be identified as the very first. It consists in the fact that the entire mass must be thoroughly rinsed. By the way, at this stage you can determine whether the animal is sick. Judged by the smell of the product being washed. An unpleasant odor is the first sign of diseases of the gastrointestinal system. If the animal is healthy, the smell will not irritate the specialist’s sense of smell.
The second stage is a little more pleasant than the first, because the smell still remains in the resulting substance, especially since the boiling process takes place at a high temperature of the decoction. It is at this stage that bacteria die. The boiling time is calculated depending on what the elephant ate. If it was bananas and grass, 3 hours is enough. After sugarcane and bamboo, you need at least 5 hours. The liquid obtained during the processing process goes to the fields as fertilizer.
Further processing consists of adding hydrogen peroxide and soda silicate to the resulting mass. This is necessary in order to destroy the remaining bacteria and give the mass a white color. After 30 minutes, the product acquires a straw color.
The next stage of creating unique paper involves grinding and selecting fibers by size. The machine, to pass this mass, works on the principle of selecting the smallest fibers. To soften the resulting fibers, use a soap solution. The output is a liquid light mass.
After all the necessary preparations of the solution, the scales come into play. You need koloboks of 300 grams each. This division is usually done by women. Next, these koloboks will be dissolved in water and the molds will be poured. The size of these forms in most cases is A2 sheet. After leveling the resulting mass in the molds, the future paper is dried. Drying occurs in the sun. After complete drying, durable paper is obtained.
The last stage of production ends, and the resulting odorless paper with an unusual texture passes into the hands of the artist or designer. Typically, various souvenirs are made from this paper, such as photo albums and photo frames. After all, it’s not a shame to give such a unique paper in many respects as a gift.
They say that in Australia similar paper is made from kangaroo dung.
Visitors to the Australian island of Tasmania will soon be able to buy paper made from kangaroo dung as souvenirs. According to the manufacturers, this is an excellent inexpensive souvenir that can not only please the guests of the island, but also suggest to the public a good solution to the environmental situation.
The Australians have already produced a trial batch of paper, but during the production process they unexpectedly encountered the problem of timely supply of raw materials, that is, kangaroo waste.
In this regard, the manager of a paper production company, Joanna Gair, appealed to her compatriots through the Advokat newspaper with a request for help in collecting the required number of kangaroo pellets. According to her, producers will be happy with any excrement: both fresh and dry. Joanna asks that kangaroo waste be collected in plastic bags and taken to Creative Paper's pulp and paper mill.
According to experts from the company that introduced the new paper production technology, about 400 sheets of A4 format can be produced from 25 kilograms of kangaroo manure. Therefore, according to experts, the new technology has every chance of successful development not only in Australia, but throughout the world. There is a real saving of money and an improvement in the environmental situation in a particular region.
In fact, enterprising Australians cannot be called pioneers. It turns out that in some countries this method of production has already been successfully implemented. For example, in Scandinavia, many institutions are happy to use paper made from moose feces.
But okay, you say, let the paper not smell beautiful and environmentally friendly, and cheap. And on my wall hangs a frame with a photo made of such paper. It hangs and does not smell :).
And you and I are pretty cheerful people and love elephants, but do any of you love elephants enough to drink...
"$1,100 coffee made from... elephant dung?
Previously, the most expensive type of coffee was considered "Kopi Luwak", the raw materials for which are obtained from the excrement of the Malayan palm marten. The price of one kilogram of such coffee beans is about $600.
Now a new variety of Black Ivory coffee produced in Thailand has established new record. Its price is $1,100 per kilogram! Some coffee lovers are willing to pay up to $50 for one cup of drink.
But what is most impressive is not the price, but the method of producing the new coffee - it is obtained from... the excrement of Thai elephants. The principle is the same as with martens - once coffee beans enter the animal’s digestive tract, they are exposed to special enzymes that destroy protein. And since it is proteins in coffee beans are responsible for bitterness, then the coffee “at the exit” does not taste bitter at all.
It is believed that elephants are more suitable for such specific processing than martens because, unlike the latter, they are herbivores.
Today, only 50 kg of beans of this exclusive drink are available for sale. So we can say that this is not only the most expensive, but also the most scarce coffee in the world. "
We had a little fun, but now we get serious:
Depending on the degree of processing, both smooth and textured paper is obtained, which is used for design work. One of large companies In this line of business, ecoMAXIMUS processes up to two tons of manure daily.
Such a business allows tens of square kilometers of forests to be saved from destruction, and also prevents air pollution from chemical emissions, which are inevitable during factory production.
In addition, the elephant population, which was previously mercilessly exterminated both for prey, suffers significantly less. Ivory, and to save farmland.
For many farmers, their crops were the only source of income, to which elephants caused irreparable damage. Now elephants are making a significant contribution to improving the economy of the settlements that suffered from them. Similar production has already been developed in India, Thailand, African countries and other natural habitats of elephants.
If you want to feed the animals, pay the mahout 20 baht for a small bag of the elephant’s favorite delicacy - pieces of the core of tender bamboo shoots and treat the giant.
But many people know that the mahouts are not the kindest people, who can hardly be called Thai Buddhists. I doubt they even believe in anything other than money if they act like that.
They offend these kind and noble animals, sometimes torturing them in order to train them.
The freedom that lives in the elephant's head interferes with the plans of the mahouts.
Elephants often go off their routes; like all living creatures, they can suddenly want to go to the toilet, chew leaves on trees, or simply choose a different path, and then sharp objects are used, traces of which can often be seen on the head and torn ears.
I met an elephant named Pum-Pui, and while communicating with him and walking through the forest, I was forced to repeatedly stop even the loud cries of such a mahout and his desire to hit the animal.
The driver was actually walking along the path nearby. I understand that I can change little in this situation, but I urge you all to ensure that no one dares to offend these smart creatures in your presence. It's not difficult for us, is it?
The Thais have a belief that walking under the trunk or belly of an elephant will bring good luck.
Give it a try.