: Startups Tree-Free Paper Saves a Tonne of Wood, 55,000+ Litres of Water Everyday! #IndiaNEWS #Small Businesses of India Have you imagined what the world would be like without paper? Sure, going digital

Startups Tree-Free Paper Saves a Tonne of Wood, 55,000+ Litres of Water Everyday! #IndiaNEWS #Small Businesses of India
Have you imagined what the world would be like without paper? Sure, going digital is always an option. But, imagine not being able to hold a book in your hand, or a newspaper or a notebook to write down your thoughts and observations. It indeed seems like a sad world, doesnâ€™t it?
Although paper is cheap, the environment pays a heavy cost. About 3. 3 million hectares of forests are cleared every year to make paper from trees. This not only renders wildlife in dense forests homeless, but also has adverse effects on the ecosystem.
So, is there a way to prevent this?
Kavya at the Bluecat Paper factory
Entrepreneur Kavya Madappa feels that this destruction is not only unnecessary but also cruel. Having grown up in the midst of greenery in Coorg, Kavya always had a deep connection with nature. Therefore, when she learnt about the environmental degradation caused by the paper industry, she was shocked.
Wanting to change how paper was being made, Kavya started researching alternatives for tree-free paper.
â€œI found that you only need two thingspulp and waterto make paper. Any pulp that has over 68 per cent cellulose is perfect for making paper,â€? she says.
Thus, with this vision, she launched her venture, â€˜Bluecat Paperâ€™, in early 2018, where not a single tree is cut to make paper!
Instead, paper is made using secondary agro- and industrial waste like cotton rags, flax, lemongrass, mulberry, rice stubble, coffee husk, banana stumps, coconut husk, and even elephant poo!
Bluecat Paper uses industrial and agro waste to make paper which saves 30 tonnes of wood in a month!
â€œThese waste materials are sourced from factory units and farms, and contain a higher percentage of cellulose than tree fibre which comprises only 30-40 per cent. Additionally, in the conventional paper industry, about 60-80 chemicals are used to make paper thin and white,â€? informs the 41-year-old
Through their operations, Bluecat Paper collects about 20 tonnes of secondary waste from 100 farmers and five factory units each month. They not only pay stakeholders for the waste, but they also stop it from ending up in landfills. All of this is processed.
In making tree-free paper by upcycling the waste, they also save about 30 tonnes of wood per month and a minimum of 55,000 litres of water a day!
The journey towards making tree-free paper
Beautiful notebooks made without cutting any trees!
Bluecat Paper isnâ€™t Kavyas first entrepreneurial venture. After finishing her Bachelors degree in Commerce from St Josephâ€™s in Bengaluru in 2000, she worked at the Internationale Nederlanden Groep (ING) Bank. Here, she was taking care of insurance services.