Now read Quran on woodless paper

Dubai - The UK company is displaying a unique copy of the Holy Quran made with stone paper, a revolutionary product that is fully recyclable, waterproof, tear and stain resistant and totally wood-free.

While there are several things that will catch a visitor's eye at this year's Paperworld Middle East exhibition, the breakout star would be a product at the Parax Paper stall.
The UK company is displaying a unique copy of the Holy Quran made with stone paper, a revolutionary product that is fully recyclable, waterproof, tear and stain resistant and totally wood-free.
Speaking to Khaleej Times at the exhibition, Harvey Djanogly, director of Parax, said: "At the end of the day, what we want to do is we want to revolutinise the way we use paper. Despite the digital revolution, the use of paper has increased incredibly - we use a third more paper than we did in the 1980s. Our vision is to take a product and make it eco-sustainable, so that we save our trees, we save our water, and we use less energy, while meeting the needs that people have to live in a modern society. You don't have to be a crazy tree huger to be green. We want to make being green easy."
 In addition to cutting trees, pulp paper production requires huge amounts of water and chemicals; thus not only destroying trees, but also causing serious water and air pollution. Parax Stone Paper is a sustainable, environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional pulp paper.
 So what exactly goes into making woodless paper? John Zanjani, director of Parax reveals: "It is made of Calcium Carbonate or chalk. What we do is that we take the chalk and grind it down to a very fine powder that is one tenth of a human hair and make the powder into small pellets. The final product is a mix of 80 per cent of the pellets and 20 per cent of high density, non-toxic Polyethylene - which is just a fancy world for recycled plastic commonly used in water bottles."
The revolutionary paper is already making the rounds in markets across Europe, and Zanjani hopes that the same will soon be true for the UAE. "This is our first show here, and we are looking for parties interested in bringing our product to the region. The response in Europe, which has plans in place to go completely green, has been overwhelming. The paper is being used for a variety of products including location maps, restaurant menus, notebooks, and is even being used by the British Army for its durability."
 Djanogly added: "We know that in Dubai especially there has been a tremendous move towards being environmentally friendly and that they are pushing the sustainability message from the top, right down to the bottom across all the sectors, so we think that this product is destined to have a warm reception."
 Unlike most recycled papers that are course, uneven and of general poor quality, Parax Stone Paper is naturally white, amazingly smooth to the touch and offers a matt, lux finish, that is a real joy to write on with any ordinary ball pen. Not only does Parax Paper accomodate traditional paper needs, but also synthetic paper applications, replacing Yupo and Tyvek in many uses. Numerous applications include, but are not limited to, soap wrappers, tickets, labels, notebooks, notepads, promotional products, paper bags etc.
What is woodless Paper?
Parax Stone Paper or the woodess paper is a sustainable, environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional pulp paper.So what exactly goes into making woodless paper?"It is made of Calcium Carbon-ate or chalk," said John Zanjani, director of Parax. We take the chalk and grind it down to a very fine powder that is one tenth of a human hair and make the powder into small pellets. The final product is a mix of 80 per cent of the pellets and 20 per cent of high density, non-toxic Polyethylene - which is just a fancy world for recycled plastic commonly used in water bottles."
rohma@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE