Turning leaves into paper
Our demand for paper is enormous. According to the paper industry association DIE PAPIERINDUSTRIE e.V., per capita consumption in Germany will be around 224 kilograms in 2021. This requires a lot of wood. The start-up Releaf Paper has found an alternative to using wood fibers, namely leaf waste from cities that would otherwise have to be disposed of at great expense. A win-win situation.
According to the WWF, six million trees are felled for paper production every year. On the other hand, huge amounts of leaves from park and urban trees in our cities have to be collected and composted (or often burned) at great expense every year.
Ukrainian student Valentyn Frechka began researching alternatives for paper production at the age of 16 in Kiev. He first experimented with grass and straw until he came across fibers made from leaves. He found a solution for extracting cellulose from the fibers of fallen leaves and processing it into paper using a self-developed and now patented technology and founded the start-up Releaf Paper together with Alexander Sobolenko.
Win-win situation for cities and the company
"We only work with the leaves we get from the cities because we can't use the leaves from the forest. It's not easy to collect them in the forest and it's not necessary because there's an ecosystem there. We offer the city a free solution: They deliver the leaves to our production facility, we clean them, granulate them and process them into cellulose," explains co-founder and CEO Alexander Sobolenko.
"In the city, it's green waste that should be collected. It's really a good solution because we keep the balance - we get fibres for paper production and we give lignin back as a semi-fertilizer for the cities to fertilize the gardens or the trees. So it's a kind of win-win model," says founder Valentyn Frechka.
Start-up receives EU funding
The start-up received a grant of 2.5 million euros to set up a pilot plant as part of the European Commission's EIC Accelerator 2022 program. It already holds several patents and produces around three million shopping bags per month. Its customers include major corporations such as L'Oréal, Samsung, LVMH, Logitech, Google and Schneider Electric.
Frechka, a young entrepreneur based in Station F in Paris, who has already received several awards since launching his company, won second place in the European Patent Office's (EPO) "Young Inventor 2024" competition in the summer.
"We want to spread this idea all over the world. Our vision is that the technology for producing paper from fallen leaves should ultimately be accessible on all continents," explains Sobolenka.
Much better for the climate than conventional paper production
Releaf Paper estimates that its process emits 78 percent less CO2 than conventional production, requires three times less energy and uses 15 times less water. "Our paper is biodegradable and recyclable, it is the most sustainable paper made from any raw material," Sobolenko told Euronews. It also significantly reduces the amount of deforestation required for paper production.
Sheet-based paper degrades in the soil within 30 days, whereas the degradation phase for conventional paper is 270 days or more," says Releaf Paper.
According to the WWF, almost every second industrially felled tree is turned into paper - newspapers, magazines, wrapping paper, packaging, kitchen towels or toilet paper. The paper industry accounts for 13 to 15 percent of total wood consumption and uses 33 to 40 percent of all industrial wood sold worldwide. The production of paper is a very energy-intensive industry.
Using autumn leaves could drastically improve the carbon footprint of our paper and our forests would thank us for it too.
