People are quite naturally drawn towards pleasant smells. And through recorded history, many civilizations around the world clearly mastered the art of perfumery.
Most traditional perfumes were produced using scent extraction techniques that isolated the desired fragrance or essential oil from a natural herb or shrub.
Across much of the old world, the Lavender plant was a favorite of many perfumers. Known for its vivid bluish/purple color and its unmistakable scent, it is more than just a cosmetic, for centuries, it held pride of place as an ornamental plant, with both culinary and medicinal uses.
The Lavender Story
Today, the global market for lavender oil is worth an estimated US$37 million with the U.S accounting for about 29% of that amount.
The lavender plant is cultivated extensively in temperate climates in the area around Europe, eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, southwest Asia, and southeast India. In the commercial production of lavender, planting is done in the Spring just as the soil is warming up. Depending on the variety, it typically takes between 90-200 days for it to reach maturity.
In the commercial production of lavender essential oils, the dried flower heads and stalks are harvested at the end of the flowering period. After which the oil itself is extracted using a process known as steam distillation.
However, with the essential oil content in the plant making up only about 0.5% to 2%, the industrial processing of lavender generates a significant amount of waste and by-products that have always challenged waste disposal experts and environmentalists.
From Fragrance to Paper
But with the game-changing Favini process, what used to be considered a nuisance and a challenge for waste disposal experts has become an opportunity for both the economy and the environment.
Favini, an Italy-based paper mill, is one company that is driving the change towards sustainable and eco-friendly production in the paper industry. It takes bio-waste from the agri-industrial sector and transforms them into a valuable new product, in an environmentally sustainable way.
The dried stem/stalk is micronized and introduced as additives into the pulper, substituting up to 15% of tree cellulose in the manufacturing of paper.
Recycling Smells So Good
On our part at Paperpapers, we are committed to supplying the North American market with paper products that are manufactured with due consideration for ecological sustainability.
Besides finding use in notebooks, catalogs, luxury packaging, brochures, stationery tags, notebooks, cards, labels, and creative projects, and other communication materials, our ecological crush paper stock is also highly sought after for creative projects in the design world, such as handmade paper jewels, and other papercrafts.
And then finally in a true circular economic model, the eco-sustainable lavender crush paper gets to enjoy a second life and (several more after) as it is nearly 100 percent recyclable.
For more inspiration on Crush to produce your own creative projects, see Crush’s Pinterest board.
More on Crush Paper
Favini’s range of eco-friendly crush paper is made by substituting up to 15% of virgin tree pulp with the process residues of organic products.
Crush paper includes by-products from citrus fruits, grapes, cherries, lavender, corn, olives, coffee, kiwi fruit, hazelnuts, and almonds. These natural raw materials are saved from landfills and used to make these distinctive and vivid papers.
Click here to read more about Favini crush paper, the revolution in sustainable and eco-friendly manufacture of paper.
[…] range of eco-friendly crush paper stock includes by-products from citrus fruits, grapes, cherries, lavender, corn, olives, coffee, kiwi fruit, hazelnuts, and […]