December 12, 2005
By Lucille Davie
PHUMANI Paper has left a paper trail of jobs, skills development and empowerment around the country, all from its headquarters in Doornfontein.
Originally started in 2000 as a community initiative of the fine arts, design and architecture department of Witwatersrand Technikon (now incorporated into the University of Johannesburg), the project is registered as a section 21 company, and is moving into its next phase: marketing itself as a commercially viable enterprise.
"The project was started as a poverty relief programme," says Liz Linsell, the deputy director of Phumani Paper, "with funds supplied by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology."
The pulp-making machine - simple but highly effective
At present it has 18 pilot projects around the country, in seven provinces, stretching from KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Limpopo in the north.
The project is the brainchild of Kim Berman, the director of Phumani Paper, a lecturer in fine arts and an artist. She started paper-making research with her post-graduate students in Eshowe, in KwaZulu-Natal in the late 1990s. This lead to the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology handing over a R3-million grant, and so Phumani Paper was born.
Unesco funding
The project has received international recognition. United Nations unit Unesco has supplied funding and expertise through its Artist in Development programme in the form of sourcing international designers and access to trade fairs. The programme is a global initiative targeting cultural enterprises in developing countries to increase market growth locally and internationally.
Phumani Paper has several aims, says Linsell. It takes locally available natural resources, sometimes harmful exotic flora, and converts this into paper and paper products - in the process training and empowering people, while making a contribution to saving the environment.
Along the way people are given business skills training to "develop their newly acquired technological capacity into sustainable businesses".
So far 250 permanent jobs have been created nationwide, with some 800 spin-off jobs over the past four years. More than 1 200 people have undergone training in paper-making skills. The process is very labour intensive, with basic machinery in the cities but virtually no machinery in the rural areas.
Products used in paper-making vary according to local circumstances. In KwaZulu-Natal, waste generated through harvesting sugar cane is used to manufacture attractive packaging for the local craft and pottery industries. In the Western Cape paper is made from invasive alien vegetation and is used for packaging for the wine and dried flower industries.
Other products used are sisal and ficus leaves, as well as discarded cotton, usually from worn cotton sheets from hospitals.
Shredded and beaten
The cotton is shredded and beaten, is then boiled for several hours, and like the vegetation, is processed until it becomes a pulp. In this state it is blended with water in a machine and agitated for several hours, until all its fibrous qualities are broken down.
It is then poured on to felt sheets, pressed and allowed to dry. Once dry, it is ready to be made into a range of products, like gift boxes and bags, wine boxes, pen and pencil holders, photo frames and albums, folders and memo boxes.
The unit's monthly output at present is 800 sheets, 320 boards and 400 semi-boards of an in-between thickness.
The machine that is used to churn the ingredients into pulp was developed locally by an engineer. It consists of a large basin with a belt that turns a round grinder, churning and circulating the material, similar to the action of a liquidiser. The machine can be hand operated, or run on electricity.
Along the way calcium carbonate is added, to stabilise the colour.
Acid-free paper
The national arts Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology approached Phumani Paper 18 months ago, inquiring about acid-free paper, needed for archival purposes. Exploring this possibility, the project now hopes to produce acid-free packaging for the storage of historical and legal papers.
Acid-free paper does not degenerate and will not damage the valuable papers. In fact, says Linsell, it will last 1 000 years. At present acid-free archival paper is imported.
"We hope to develop a new industry, making our own handmade African paper."
She hopes that the project eventually will supply acid-free boxes to the Timbuktu archival project in Mali, where thousands of manuscripts are in danger of disintegrating unless they are properly stored. Operation Timbuktu is a presidential project, co-ordinated by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, through the National Archives in Pretoria.
Phumani Paper has targeted unemployed rural women, the disabled and those living with or affected by HIV and Aids. Linsell jokes about the process, saying it is perfect for women, who are used to doing washing. Making paper is similar to doing the washing and in rural areas, the sheets are hung on a washing line to dry.
"It is a low-tech, low-skill process," she says. And it is ready to take off. "We are now finished with the pilot phase and now we're ready for full-scale production."
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