Our very own founder and inventor of Banana paper was interviewed over at Blue Planet Green Living. Here's a quick excerpt:

“Waste is a resource. But when people think of waste, they usually think of it as trash, rather than asking, What can we do with it?

“Everything we use at Costa Rica Natural paper products is totally disregarded material,” says Harry Johansing, the company’s founder. “There’s no other use for it. When I approach a new fiber, I look at it as, Is this completely trash? and then I ask, How can I use it?

Harry Johansing, founder of Costa Rica Naturals

Costa Rica Natural produces Ecopaper, a high-quality paper made from the discarded agricultural byproducts of bananas, coffee, or tobacco, combined with post-consumer waste. Other specialty papers include byproducts from mango, lemon, and hemp.

We interviewed Johansing by phone from his California home.

BPGL: How do you approach a new raw material to determine if you want to use it to make paper? Take celery, for example.