I make hand made papers, here in New Zealand. I love the process, though cold snaps in winter can make things challenging. My primary fibre of choice is harvested from New Zealand Flax (Harakeke or Phormium Tenax). What a majestic plant.

I have concerns about what we are doing to the world globally. We 'harvest' almost 800 million tonnes of trees anually across the globe to produce between 350-400 million tonnes of paper and board, 25% of which is used for packaging. Some of this forestry is sustainably managed, certainly not all, and probably not enough.

As many papermakers will tell you, paper can be made from many sources of cellulose fibre. Incredibly hundreds of millions of tonnes of cellulose fibre is disposed of in agriculture every year. Why grow a forest to harvest, when there are alternative sources which is considered agriwaste?

I know there are many excuses. The CEO of International Papers claims the transport cost to the mills would be prohibitive. That sounds fair, until you consider that these paper mills he is talking about were built in forests near water sources only in the last 150 years, after we discovered the process that would unlock the cellulose fibre from its lignin matrix. So I wonder why it is not possible to build new mills close to the alternative fibre sources?

Well thats probably enough of a lecture to start this blog....
Harakeke is a native plant of New Zealand, it has been grown in a few other countries, but it is available in abundance here. I am hoping to start a business producing handmade papers from this local treasure.