This facility will use wheat instead of wood, end “barbaric” deforestation

Oct 26, 2012 08:52 GMT  ·  By
Woody Harrelson shows his support for a wood-free paper mill in North America
   Woody Harrelson shows his support for a wood-free paper mill in North America

Prairie Pulp and Paper Inc. is a company that specializes in using wheat straw waste to make environmentally-friendly paper.

Apparently, this company now wishes to build a wood-free paper mill in North America, and American actor Woody Harrelson saw fit to offer its full support to this project.

Seeing how this non-wood paper mill is to help reduce deforestation rates, the idea seems noteworthy, to say the least. As Woody Harrelson puts it, “It'd be nice to just stop using the forest.”

Furthermore, “I'd like to see it get to the point where we never use trees to make paper because to me it's just a barbaric way to make it.”

Ecorazzi informs us that, for the time being, the Prairie Pulp and Paper Inc. company is already manufacturing and marketing a so-called Step Forward Paper, which supposedly contains 80% waste wheat straw and 20% wood fibers.

Interestingly enough, it seems that the overall ecological footprint of said green-oriented paper is smaller than that of 100% recycled paper.

However, the researchers working with said company hope that this new facility in Manitoba, Canada will witness the manufacturing of 100% wood free paper.

According to preliminary estimates, about $500 million (€385.3 million) will have to be spent on building this environmentally-friendly paper mill, which is to both cut down on the ecological footprint of the paper industry, and up local economy by creating numerous job opportunities.

The official website for this company explains that the main drive behind their choosing to build this paper mill in Canada has to do with the fact that this country's prairies foster noteworthy wheat harvests.

During his most recent interviews, Woody Harrelson stated that, “I'd like to see a revolution in the paper industry and I think this is an important part of that process.”

“I hope people don't lose their jobs or can transition into other jobs, but to me, we've taxed the forest enough,” the American actor went on to explain.