Norra cards are sustainable greeting cards that are printed on paper made from recycled wood fibre and grass fibre through a sustainable and circular process. Curious how that works? Continue reading!
(jump directly to: From grass to paper in four steps)
Why sustainable paper?
The paper industry has a resource intensive nature. This is why it is important to find more sustainable ways of producing paper.
I stumbled across a special kind of paper product, called Veezel©, when I was searching for a sustainable paper alternative to create sustainable greeting cards. For me, Veezel© stood out because the developers also focus on local sourcing and circular solutions in their strategy to create a sustainable product. In a circular economy, resources are continually used and nothing goes to waste.
The environmental benefits of Veezel© are:
- Natural waste (the grass on the roadsides) becomes a new resource.
- Roadside grass absorbs CO2. When this grass would end up in a compost pile, it would release the CO2 with its decay. When the grass is used to produce paper instead, the grass holds on to the CO2.
- In Veezel©, only a small proportion of virgin paper is needed. Veezel© is mainly made out of recycled paper and roadside grass.
- The paper is locally produced and processed. The roadside grass and recycled paper come from the Netherlands. The small amount of virgin grass comes from Belgium, its neighbouring country. The paper mill is in the same area as where the roadside grass is mowed. This saves a lot of transport (and CO2 emissions) in the production process!
From grass to paper in four steps
Step 1
Roadside grass provides an excellent habitat for bees and other insects, as it often includes a variety of flowers. The roadside grass is mowed every Spring and Autumn in the Netherlands. The grass is dried, made into hay bales and prepared for transport.
Step 2
The grass is transported to the paper mill. There it is chopped into grass fibre until it has the right size.
Step 3
The grass fibre is added to the (recycled) paper pulp. The combination goes through a large filter and is made into paper.
Step 4
The quality of the paper is assessed. If the quality meets the standards, the last stages of the process are finalized. The end result? Giant sheets of sustainable paper!
Read more about Veezel© paper on this website (only in Dutch).
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