We're mostly relying on recycled paper to get us through until the next innovation.  And while we at EcoGeek are very excited about the day when paper is used much less in favor of hi-res hand-held devices (like Sony's forthcoming E-Reader) we're excited to say that there's another alternative out there.

ViaStone is actually making paper out of rocks.  I guess if it was good enough for cavemen...  Anyhow, it's made of limestone, mostly, and a small amount of non-toxic resin to bind the 'mineral substrate' together.  You may have felt pure resin paper, it's very much like thin plastic, but adding large amounts limestone powder allows for a much more paper-like, completely bio-degradable, easily recyclable and chemically benign product. 

Though ViaStone's paper is 'tree-free,' acquiring rocks does generally require some kind of environmental damage (small-scale mining), but I like to have options, and discovering a company that squeezes paper out of stone is the kind of surprise that I can be happy with.

For Sale at The Image Shop

Via TreeHugger

Comments (13)

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im going to make with god\'s help!
written by a guest , August 25, 2006

this is really good for young parents such as me i need all the help i can get.

This is GREAT!
written by a guest , August 25, 2006

Stone paper. What a great idea! I hope they come out with more evironmental safe office supplies! Keep working at it!

Wow I love it!
written by a guest , August 25, 2006

Sounds like a great idea now if they would just make use of all those natural power sources we are on the right track!

Are you kidding me?
written by a guest , August 26, 2006

Sure, you aren't cutting down trees, but trees are renewable (you can plant and grow more), but you can't grow more rock. How this is green is beyond me.

...
written by a guest , August 26, 2006

As a former quarryman I have to agree, this may be neat but it isn't green. First, you clear cut, then you take some dozers and push the over burden (top soil) aside, set up your crushing plant and then you start blasting and bring in the big earth movers. There's no such thing as small scale mining.

Worked for the Flintstones
written by a guest , August 29, 2006

Fred and Barney had no problems, but what's next? Concrete notepad? Greeting cards made of boulders? Rubble based napkins?

\'Eco Friendly\' mining?
written by a guest , September 01, 2006

I am a biologist and have monitored mining actvities, and I would have to agree... not much is green about mining (I would think it is much worse than managed forest harvesting). Im not familiar enough with limestone mining, but I can't see how it would be much different. This seems like one of those products that is really cool and sounds great and 'environmentally friendly' at first glance, but once you scratch the surface it ends up being just as bad or worse than the alternatives.

good idea
written by bandung , July 23, 2007

stop wasting wood..

sure??
written by fridz , November 21, 2007

and what about stop wasting stones and rocks, since people will use huge amount of this stone papers and they'll start cut our mountains...
it means another environmental problem...
not a very brilliant idea...

Take YouTube Videos with you
written by matilda , December 04, 2007

YouTubeRobot.com today announces YouTube Robot 2.0, a tool that enables you to download video from YouTube.com onto your PC, convert flv files to various video formats to watch it when you are on the road on mobile devices like mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, or Zune.Product page:youtuberobot.com
Direct download link: youtuberobot.com/download/utuberobot.exe
Company web-site: youtuberobot.com
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

ViaStone? same to Rich Mineral Paper ?
written by albert , May 15, 2008

See the above web page, it looks the same...

...
written by albert , May 15, 2008

sorry, the web site is here: http://www.ycrp.com/

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