Notwithstanding that some ignoramus politicians have never heard of her, Canadian literary giant Margaret Atwood has a novel twist when it comes to her latest book.
An autographed, limited edition of In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination will be printed on straw instead of the traditional timber-derived paper. 300 straw-produced books, will go on sale for $100 this week at canopyplanet.org.
According to the award-winning author, printing on straw avoids “any harmful impact on forests and their fragile ecosystems.” To farmers, though, the quirky print run is a waste.
The brainchild of Vancouver-based environmental group, Canopy, the limited edition illustrates the "viability of wheat and flax straw as alternative sources of fibre for fine paper."
“I just find it shocking that in 2011 we still cut down 400- to 800-year-old trees to make bank statements and junk mail,” said Canopy executive director, Nicole Rycroft. “We want to demonstrate that in fact, you can produce paper without using forest fibre at all.
The so-called Second Harvest paper isn't all that viable, after all, having been produced from Alberta flax straw and wheat straw imported all the way from China to a processing plant in Montreal.
Want to be eco-friendly? You could always purchase the book on an e-reader...
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