Bagasse
Thursday, April 23, 2009
In a post last week, I mentioned O’BON, a San Francisco company offering stationery made from bagassse. I’d never heard of bagasse, so I did a little online sleuthing to find out more about this fibre, a bi-product of sugarcane processing. Lo and behold, this once ‘worthless’ residue is turning out to be quite a versatile, earth-friendly, renewable resource.
Paper
Bagasse is a great source of non-wood paper pulp. While it accounts for 20% of paper production in South America and India, it still only accounts for a very small percentage worldwide. However, with dwindling forest resources paper producers will be increasingly looking for non-wood alternatives; bagasse fits the bill. It has many advantages over wood-based fibre, including rapid growth of the sugar-cane plant (15 months compared to 10 years for forests), widespread cultivation, and lower energy and bleaching requirements. Plus, it’s plentiful (for every ton of refined sugar produced, there’s two tons of bagasse).
With an estimated 900,000,000 trees cut down each year in order to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills, it’s time to get serious about non-wood alternatives. I searched for producers and/or retailers of bagasse paper in North America. Besides, O’BON, Staples (US only) carries a line of eco-friendly notebooks and writing pads made from 80% bagasse. The Sugar Cane Paper Company carries tissue, toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, and packaging products made from bagasse. Apparently Kimberly Clark also uses bagasse for paper towels and tissue. A number of green online suppliers, including Sugarmade, also carry bagasse paper products.
Styrofoam Alternative
Bagasse is being used as an alternative to Styrofoam, particularly for disposable dishware and cutlery. Again, bagasse is a functional, eco-friendly choice. It can withstand temperatures up to 88 C, is microwave and freezer safe, and is entirely hygienic having been exposed to very high temperature during the molding process. It also biodegrades within 30 to 90 days (compare that to 35 years for a Styrofoam cup!).
There are quite a few online suppliers of bagasse containers, including We Are Green (Canadian), WorldCentric, Vegware, Biodegradable Store, and Green Starfish.
Alternative Energy
Bagasse is used for generation of energy and production of ethanol, among other things. It is formed into pellets and used as fuel for thermal plants. Pellets are easier to transport than unprocessed bagasse, have a higher heating potential, and a lower carbon emission rate than coal.
Bagasse is also being used in the production of second-generation ethanol. Brazil is leading the way in developing bagasse for production of commercial quantities of cellulosic ethanol.
Other Uses
Since bagasse is a relatively nutritious biomass, it can be used as a medium in which to grow mushrooms!
