Office - Bagasse Notebooks, Composition Books and Writing Pads from Staples

Some people get pessimistic about the state of the environment, but I am continually filled with optimism thinking of human ingenuity.

Sure, our curiosity gets us into all sorts of messes, but it also helps us come up with ingenious solutions to reducing waste and producing useful Green products.

Consider the example of bagasse, a.k.a. sugarcane waste - the plant fiber that's left over after the sugarcane has been processed and crushed to make sugar.

What would you do with this crushed sugarcane? (I have a sweet tooth, so I might suck on the cane a little just to see if there were any sugar left, but that's not the best answer in this case.)

Office products company Staples® decided to use the bagasse to create a collection of eco-friendly notebooks, notepads and filler paper. These paper products are manufactured from a formula that includes 80% bagasse and marketed under the Staples EcoEasy™ brand.

Staples says that the quality of bagasse paper is "just as good as tree-based paper," but we think that's incorrect.

In our humble opinion, the bagasse paper looks and feels even better than tree-based paper. There's a sort of silky smoothness and sheen to the paper that we rarely experience in tree-based paper.

Now we don't mean to diss trees, we'd just rather see them standing tall, pumping out oxygen, providing shade and making the world a beautiful place to live rather than pulped into paper.

Could bagasse paper ever replace tree-made paper entirely? One other bagasse benefit to consider (per Staples) is that sugarcane can reach maturity in just 15-16 months, where trees apparently require at least 10 years to mature. This seems to make bagasse a much more efficient (and did we mention sweeter?) renewable resource. Although there are probably many other variables to consider, such as how much paper you can get out of a 16-month old acre of bagasse versus a 10-year old acre of trees.

According to Staples' media reps, the bagasse paper can go straight into the usual paper recycling stream. One more point in its favor...

Where to buy:

Currently, you can only find these bagasse notebooks ($1.99-$2.99), composition books ($1.99) and writing pads ($1.99) in Staples stores. Use the handy Store Locator to find a location near you.

Don't Forget:

You can still enter the 1GreenProduct.com Act2GreenSmart sweepstakes that runs until August 28!