Sugarcane bagasse turned into Hallmark cards

An employee at our workplace brought a Hallmark card that she bought from Wal-Mart. No big deal, until she showed us it was made out of sugarcane bagasse (the fibrous residue left after squeezing the juice out of the sugarcane stalks to make sugar). So I checked it out at the Hallmark newsroom. Sure enough, Hallmark has an "earth friendly" line of greeting cards. Where does Hallmark get its paper? Perhaps The Sugarcane Paper Company, Inc. in Panama City, FL. Perhaps somewhere else.

Bagasse has many uses. Bagasse is the primary fuel source at most sugarcane mills. It produces enough heat energy to supply the needs of the mill, and, in some cases, electricity is sold to the public, such as at Florida Crystals’ Okeelanta Cogeneration Plant. It has been used in the building industry as an ingredient in particle board, acoustic tiles, etc. With molasses added, it has also been used as a bulking agent in animal feed. It has also been used as an ingredient in compost for landscaping. While living in Hawaii, I used it as a compost ingredient when I was commercially growing "organic" turfgrass sod on black plastic. Enter the keywords "bagasse biodegradable" into a search engine and you'll be amazed at the range of products that can be purchased that are made out of bagasse.