BrainStuff Classics: Will the Paper of the Future Be Made from Poop?

It might sound gross, but it's eco-friendly: Paper is made from plant pulp. Animals that eat plants excrete plant pulp. Learn why some researchers have high hopes for poo-pyrus in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/poo-pyrus-eco-friendly-paper-made-from-poop.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi
brain Stuff, I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and today's episode is
another classic from our archives. For many of us, life
is increasingly digital and paper increasingly rare. But what if
paper could be more environmentally friendly and a little grosser
at the same time. Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren folk Bomb

(00:25):
Here it's become an evergreen piece of advice for aspiring writers.
Put your button the chair and write a first draft,
no matter how crappy. Now, thanks to a breakthrough in
chemical technology, that first draft can be literal crap, or
at least printed on it. Researchers announced at a meeting
of the American Chemical Society in March that it's possible

(00:48):
to turn manure from cows, elephants, goats, and other grass
munchers into yes paper. As you may already know, paper
is made from cellulos that usually comes from trees. Not
every place has a lot of trees, But as we
all know, everybody poops, and some of those poopers leave
patties around for stepping in or collecting if you're of

(01:10):
a mind to collect poop like these. A c S
scientists are one of the researchers who presented this idea
at the a c S meeting. In question, Alexander Bismarck, PhD.
Was driving around crete and watched goats eat grass and
poop it out. He thought that maybe the goats were
doing to the grass what paper manufacturers due two trees,
turn it into cellulose that could be made into paper,

(01:33):
because of course that's what you think of while you're
driving around an idyllic island. Cretion excretions. Some animals, it
turns out, do a pretty good job pooping out paper
ready cellulose, depending on which animal is doing the manure manufacturing,
Bismarck said in a press statement. Up to that manure
is cellulose, which is then easily accessible to make paper

(01:55):
from trees, The trees have to be ground way down
by a machine into a pulp before being made into
proper paper. Goats do that work for free every day
of their grass munchoned, poop leaven lives. The only thing
they require is more grass, which makes more poop, which
makes more paper, and they need some water to drink
and maybe scritches on their little chins. But either way,

(02:17):
it's a more environmentally friendly process than traditional paper making,
and it's not just goats. The researchers moved onto piles
of patties from horses, cows, and elephants. To elephants in
wildlife parks in Africa are number one at going number
two at the San Francisco Zoo alone, an adult male
African elephant can produce three hundred pounds. That's thirty six

(02:39):
kilos of pooh. That's a lot of potential paper. The
first uses for this poop paper would probably be industrial.
According to the researchers, it could filter wastewater before it's
released into the environment, which seems fitting. But poop pyrus,
or nanopaper, as the researchers rather boringly call it, could
also be used to write on. So don't give up,

(03:00):
fellow writers, Our first drafts could soon be really truly crappy.
Today's episode is based on the article poop Pyrus Eco
friendly paper made from poop on how stuff Works dot com,
written by Kristen Hall Geisler. Brain Stuff is production of
by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot com,

(03:22):
and it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts my
Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,