How We Turn Food Waste Into Beautiful Handmade Paper (And Why It Matters)

This year, Papercraft Miracles became a vendor at the Lexington Co-op Markets, a local cooperative grocery store here in Buffalo NY. Our full line of handmade seed paper greeting cards are currently being sold at both locations.

During spring, we leveled up with a new line of spring themed cards exclusive to the Co-op as part of an Earth Week promotion. This time, instead of plain recycled seeded handmade paper, we collected food waste and floral waste scraps from the store to be used in this special batch of handmade paper. Items such as wilted flower bouquets, vegetables and herbs that were damaged or too old to sell anymore were processed, picked apart and dried at our studio and then used as inclusions in our sustainable handmade paper. Who knew you could make paper from vegetables?! We did.

Check out this video to see the whole fun process of collecting the scraps and turning them into paper!

To go along with the Earth Week celebrations, Janna led paper making demonstrations outside of both Co-Op locations, including both customers and staff in the paper making process. She also educated people about the process we went through to create this paper made using produce. She also educated people about the importance of sustainability in art and business but also about how this type of agricultural waste paper is part of the circular economy that we will all need to survive into the future. This not only brought community together, but also let the customers get up close and personal with our women-owned sustainable business as a vendor and see where the Lexington Co-op products come from.

Being able to partner with our local food co-op to reduce waste also helped us to develop new techniques for creating other sustainable event stationery for our other clients. It’s a win-win!