Margaret Atwood publishes book made from straw

New paper source designed to protect forests

From TheSpec.com:

Atwood special-edition book printed on straw

Author Margaret Atwood has partnered with an environmental advocacy non-profit to release a limited special edition of her new collection of essays on a pioneering form of paper.

The 300 copies of In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination that went on sale Tuesday are published on Second Harvest Paper, designed by Vancouver-based Canopy specifically for Atwood. It’s the first book in North America printed on straw.

“These pages were produced without any harmful impact on forests and their fragile ecosystems,” writes Atwood in the introduction. “Human beings need oxygen, and forests produce it; printed books require paper, but paper need not be made from virgin forests. This is an elegant solution to a pressing problem.”

Made from a combination of recycled material and the straw left over from harvesting grain, the innovative material gives the Atwood’s book half the ecological footprint of conventional paper.

“For us she was a logical person to approach to be the champion,” Canopy’s executive director, Nicole Rycroft, said of the organization’s collaboration with Atwood on the pilot project.

“We know and love her for being willing to dive out of the box and to try the unknown and to stand up for us and for our planet … . I just find it startling that in 2011 we still cut down, in Canada, 400- and 800-year-old trees to make Jackie Collins novels and bank statements, when this book proves that using straw to make paper is a viable alternative to using endangered forest.

“Using straw to make paper helps diversify the fibre basket and helps keep up to 830 million trees standing each and every year in our carbon-rich forests. At this juncture, that is really critical in terms of our keeping our climate stable.”

Although Canada is one of the world’s largest wheat-growing regions, it lacks the infrastructure to turn wheat straw into pulp, so the byproduct utilized for Atwood’s books was imported from China.

“That’s where we need government and paper industry leadership to really follow this demonstration of product viability,” explained Rycroft.

Although the digital age is upon us, the “mythical paperless office” may still be decades away, so Second Harvest Paper could have widespread uses from annual reports to toilet paper, she added.

The unique autographed copies of In Other Worlds are available at www.canopyplanet.org. With proceeds going to Canopy, the $100 price tag reflects its limited availability, said Rycroft.

“Straw paper should in fact cost no more than conventional paper,” she said