Green paper mill sought on back of banana peel

The organisation is seeking to bring to market the process of converting banana plant fibre into raw paper, a technology resulting from seven years of research and development at the University of Adelaide research campus. Papyrus claims the technique to be both economically competitive and highly environmentally advantageous, and expect to spend $2.7 million on the construction of the facility.

An initial revenue of $20 million per year is being targeted with the single facility to use a fraction of North Queensland's banana crop waste, before exploring options to capture the full commercial potential of the technology in Australia and overseas. “We have developed a series of prototypes over the past seven years to the point where the technology has been substantially proven,” says chairman of Papyrus Australia David Wyatt.

“The success of the project would allow us to meet demand for an environmentally-friendly paper industry, and to create a new cash crop from waste from banana plantations - most of which are in developing nations,” says Wyatt. In contrast to the conventional process of paper production, no toxic chemicals or water are required during manufacturing, no effluent or landfill waste is created, and the process is estimated to use about one per cent of the energy of a typical wood-chip paper plant.

The Papyrus proposal joins another Queensland paper mill on the drawing boards, the proposed Swan Mill conventional paper mill outside Brisbane.