Watch: The Economic Botany Collection — Bamboo paper

Did you know you can make paper from bananas, palm leaves, rice, and bamboo? 

You may be familiar with bamboo as a panda’s favourite snack, or a sustainable material commonly found in re-usable straws. But it was also once used as an alternative paper-making material in the western world.  

In the 1840s there were paper shortages in Europe, so papermaker Thomas Routledge began investigating alternative materials, including bamboo – a papermaking resource that has been used in South Asia and East Asia for thousands of years. 

Uncover his journey from fibre to fruition with PhD candidate Frankie Kubicki.