PooPooPaper's Inspired Recycling An eco-minded entrepreneur finds inspiration for his paper products from an unlikely source.

"There's a lot of crap out there sold by a lot of companies, and they pretend it's not crap. Could I actually sell product that is crap?"
--Michael Flancman, PooPooPaper

Photography by Devon Jarvis

Entrepreneurs: Michael Flancman and his wife, Tun, created Toronto-based PooPooPaper, a line of recycled paper products made from, as the name suggests, poop. The odorless stationery, notepads, greetings cards and journals are crafted from a pulp made with the dung of fiber-eating herbivores such as elephants, horses, cows, donkeys and pandas.

"Aha" moment: "There's a lot of crap out there sold by a lot of companies, and they pretend it's not crap. Could I actually sell product that is crap?" Flancman wondered after meeting a papermaker who was experimenting with products made from elephant dung. "It was so bizarre and interesting," Flancman says. "I thought there was a sexiness to it--to the story and to the idea of taking something that seemingly has no purpose and giving it a purpose and making a wild product out of it. I thought it was a unique niche that might be fun to market."