Recycled journals and notebooks - be kind to the planet!

Did you know this week is Recycling Week?  Here at Oh So Cherished we love our beautiful paper products but do feel an occasional pang of guilt when someone mentions the rainforests! So to ease our consciences, we set out to source some gorgeous notebooks and journals that are not only a delight to write in but are also sustainable and eco-friendly.

We soon found a number of suppliers who import quality notebooks and journals from Fair Trade co-operatives, mainly on the Indian Sub-Continent. One enterprising couple, on an unplanned trip to Kathmandu in Nepal, came across a small shop where a family was producing beautiful, handmade treeless paper from the Lokta plant.

Lokta paper comes from the bark of the Daphne papyracea bush. The bark of this abundant plant is self-regenerating, making its paper a totally sustainable product and a valuable source of rural employment. Growing in the Himalayas at altitudes of over 6,500 feet, Lokta paper is made using traditional techniques handed down from generation to generation. Villagers trek to the lokta plants, harvest the bark and take it back to the villages where it is boiled, cleaned and beaten to produce a pulp. It is then mixed with water and poured into a bamboo frame and sun-dried. Local artisans then turn the paper into these fabulous products. 

The resulting papers are not only tree-friendly and fair trade but highly durable and, as you can see, very colourful and decorative. As well as filling journals, the paper is also available as beautiful environmentally friendly gift wrap.

Fair Trade Gift Wrap

These 'Trekker' journals feature a screen-printed leaf design and 100 pages of treeless lokta paper.

Trekker journal

The handsome fern design on this notebook is made by decorating the paper pulp with leaves whilst still wet; once dried in the sun, the leaves are stripped off, leaving these amazing patterns behind.

Fern Traveller Journal

We do like to be a bit exclusive here, so when we found out we could design our own paper, we jumped at the chance and chose a lovely pale beige paper with a cream paisley pattern for a boxed guest book and matching photo album.

Paisley Photo Album and Guest Book with Treeless Paper

Anyone who saw the film 'Slumdog Millionaire' will be aware of the massive recycling industry that operates in the outskirts of India's industrial areas. Just about anything, from paper to plastic and cloth to cans, is recycled in an industry employing almost 200,000 people.

Colourful Indian saris - Image by brad.coy cc

One by-product of the garment recycling industry is Indian Khadda paper. Our supplier sources their paper from a family business in Rajasthan; this paper is completely treeless, being made from unbleached, hard-spun cotton rags rescued from the clothing industry.

Making khadda paper

Once the cotton pulp is placed in the mould, various natural products are added; marigold petals, bougainvillea, aster flowers, grass and silk thread are inserted to create beautifully individual, textured paper finishes.

Small Stitched Leather Journal

We chose some fine leather journals, filled with thick, soft chunks of Khadda paper; this small journal is covered with soft, brown Indian leather and enhanced with decorative stitching and a semi-precious stone.

Small Stitched And Stoned Leather Journal

These journals may be traditional in production technique but they're bang on trend when it comes to style. This attractive journal features a beautiful embossed design on a vibrant hot pink leather.

Small Hot Pink Leather Journal

This chunky journal contains a bundle of 200 soft khadda pages, embossed with a traditional design and finished with stitching on the spine - perfect for any keen writer.

Large Embossed Leather Journal

We have just added this lovely pale green suede journal to our range; it has a really luxurious feel to it  - a real object of desire, dying to be stroked!

Kavita Green Suede Journal

It's not just the paper that is made from recycled cloth. The beautiful jewel-like fabrics used for Indian saris are recycled too, into coverings for lovely Khadda filled journals. We have them in various sizes but our Sari journals all feature gorgeous, rich colours, gold thread embroidery and a sweet button closure, making them as pretty as they are sustainable.

Extra Large Sari Journal

I just love the detail on these gorgeous A6 size mini journals. These ones feature recycled traditional fabric from heavy saris, some up to 25 years old, as well as leather stitching on the spine and a leather tie. A Fair Trade product, they are even gift boxed so they make wonderful little gifts; the acid-free cotton paper has a smooth finish suitable for all pen types, drawing, painting and even pastels. We sell a lot of these as travel journals as they are just the right size to pop into a rucksack for notes and sketches.

Mini Travelling Sari Journal

India has one of the largest stocks of livestock in the world and has a long history of supplying fine quality leather. For cultural and religious reasons, goat and buffalo skins are particularly popular and of course are by-products of the food industry.

One example is this leather journal, available in several sizes, which encloses deckle-edged lokta paper in a thick, supple buffalo leather wrap. Buffalo leather is especially strong and features a pebbly texture that is very rustic in style. It contains fine quality paper that is really versatile - use it for writing, sketching or photos - you will find it takes fountain pen, biro, water colours, pastel and pencil equally well.

Extra large leather journal with treeless paper

Goat leather is highly durable, yet very soft and supple, with a textured finish. It also takes dye particularly well, as you can see by the gorgeous deep shade of tan in these goat leather journals. I especially like the strap detail on this one and of course, the paper is treeless too.

Pocket strap leather journal with treeless paper

In our search for recycled and eco-friendly products, we located some superb photo albums too. We love this beautiful, rustic leather photo album, handmade by a co-operative of 40 families using traditional methods; natural tree bark and vegetable extract are used to dye the leather, which is naturally tanned and filled with recycled cotton paper. The hand-torn edges give a really rustic feel but the paper is super strong and has been known to last hundreds of years without deterioration.

Rustic Leather Large Album

 The Sari covered photo albums are lovely too.

Sari Photo Album

To preserve your photos each album contains acid-free cotton paper interleaves and is presented in a recycled cotton gift box for added protection.

So it goes to show, we can take care of the environment and support employment opportunities in the developing world without sacrificing our taste for beautiful, fine quality paper products! Why not take a look at our full range of sustainable and eco-friendly notebooks here and do your bit to save the planet!