Water Hyacinth paper

At Bluecat Paper, we have found a way to transform the dreaded water hyacinth into water hyacinth paper.

Water Hyacinth transforms to fabulous 100% Tree-free paper!

Water hyacinth is a free-floating and flowering invasive aquatic plant originated from Amazon Basin, South America.

Who brought water hyacinth to India?

Interestingly, the Water Hyacinth was a gift of the British to India, introduced towards the end of the 18th century. Lady Hastings, the wife of the First British Governor-General, who was enchanted by the beauty of the flowers, brought it to India, which has now spread to most water bodies.

Now here comes the problem—water hyacinth causes dense mats of biomass on the water surface, which reduces dissolved oxygen in the water and the amount of light available to the underground vegetation.

So, how do we make the best of evil?

Kudos to Mithan Subbiah from hulimavu kere Taranga and our founder Kavya Madappa!

BluecatPaper received a sack of sample Hyacinth, retrieved from the Hulimavu Lake in the project ‘clean the lake’. After due process and experiments the project was hugely successful.

Water hyacinth might have some good intent after all.

Water hyacinth is cellulose-rich, grows rapidly in ponds, soft and easy to process and thus potentially can be an alternative source of material for paper making. Besides, processing water hyacinth into paper requires much less energy and produces less chemical waste as compared with processing wood chips.

Successful Efforts: 

At Bluecat Paper, we have created alluring textured paper water hyacinth paper. Our team has worked on ways of making paper from the stalk of the hyacinth. Their efforts have met with considerable success.

The process of papermaking is painstaking in the beginning. Harvest hyacinth plants, clean and chop off roots and leaves. 

The stem needs to be cooked to remove any form of lignin or impurities. Thereafter water hyacinth stems are beaten and the fiber is extracted. Finally, we have the paper that we absolutely adore.

The paper with high water resistance shows appreciable strength, appearance and smoothness suitable for writing and printing.

The paper is indeed very appealing and unique. Strong, resilient,100% sustainable and can be used in a range of products ranging from gift wraps, carry bags, notebooks etc.”

100% upcycled. recycled. sustainable

Clean lakes. Save forests. Use water hyacinth paper instead.