Kenaf Paper

A cousin to cotton and okra, kenaf has its roots in Africa and Asia. For thousands of years, kenaf has provided fiber for rope, sacking and rugs, while its tender seedlings have served as a nutritious vegetable. Its value as a papermaking fiber in the United States was uncovered in the 1950s by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which undertook an exhaustive search for crops capable of augmenting or replacing the need to cut trees to make paper. The Department concluded that kenaf presented the best alternative from among nearly 200 plant species studied.

Kenaf is a fast-growing annual plant, reaching 12 to 15 feet in just five months. Each acre devoted to kenaf can annually outproduce the amount of fiber in an acre of Southern Pine, one of the most productive trees used in papermaking.

Grown by farmers in the southern United States, kenaf already has demonstrated its value in crop rotation systems, and is thriving in areas where more traditional crops have proven to be unproductive. It's fast growth cycle and thick canopy crowd out competing weeds, limiting the need for herbicide applications. Its leaves are plowed back into the soil to recycle nitrogen and other nutrients.

To makes its paper, Crane uses the long "bast" fibers on the outside of the kenaf stalk. The remaining core fiber is suitable for other sustainable products, such as absorbents for oil spills, potting soil and animal litter.

Continuum Kenaf paper is made from 50 percent kenaf fiber and 50 percent recovered cotton rag. Kenaf White is elemental chlorine-free. Kenaf Natural is processed chlorine-free.