AWARD YEAR
2021
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Life On Land
KEYWORDS
Paper, invasive plants, community economy, disturbance
COUNTRY
Slovenia
DESIGNED BY
Trajna collective
WEBSITE
https://www.notweedpaper.com
Notweed paper
By replacing virgin wood fibers with invasive plants, we aim to foster life in our precious forests.
Notweed Paper is a paper brand, determinedly following the producers of tree-free paper, while breaking new grounds as the world’s pioneer in producing paper made of invasive plants. The main ingredient serving to produce Notweed Paper is the Japanese knotweed. Seeing how widespread it is on a global scale, we could rename the plant to ‘globetrotter’. Japanese knotweed is prone to grow over degraded areas while its pervasiveness causes annoyances to plenty of residents, since many are unaware of the plant’s useful properties. It’s on these undesirable areas that the initiators of the brand gather twice a year and invite their friends to join them at urban foraging. They then take their harvest to the nearby paper mill where the plant replaces wood pulp used in paper production. In Slovenia, wood pulp is exclusively imported. Notweed Paper has already gathered supporters among environmentally conscious creators that understand the importance and the breakthrough of this eco-innovation.