Terraskin: Welcome to the Stoneage

The June issue of HOW Magazine (yes, June!) includes a section dedicated to “Truly Green Design.” Within this section we found a cool company, Chameleon Packaging, whose newest venture includes a paper product called Terraskin. But this paper isn’t like others. It’s actually a tree-free paper that’s made from stone. After visiting their hip website, we learned that Terraskin is similar to traditional paper when it comes to printing on it, however, because it’s a fiber-less material it uses 20-30% less ink than conventional papers. It also has the advantage in the fact that it’s water-resistant and tear-resistant. A sample came in HOW and we can attest that it look some tugging to make it rip. It’s also a bit heavier than normal paper but Terraskin does come in various weights so it can be used for anything from shopping bags to menus to gift boxes. No water is used in its production, which is a major concern in the paper industry, and bleach isn’t used either. Because Terraskin is made from minerals, it easily disintegrates back into the Earth. TreeHugger has written about something similar before, called Rock Paper. See John's experience in testing it . ::Terraskin