By now you must have noticed that On The Rocks makes stationery from rocks. It sounds cool, we know, but we want to explain the production process a bit more in-depth.

You’ve probably already seen our visual, explaining why stone paper is way better than pulp paper, but how on earth do you make paper out of rock?!

For stone paper, you need two elements: 80% ground calcium carbonate and 20% non-toxic resin (HDPE).
That means that we can create paper out of waste! We use stone waste from old mines, building sites, any place you can imagine where the calcium carbonate normally lays to wait. Plus, a little bit of old bottles, plastic that was thrown away. Instead of piling it up in a big landfill, we re-use it in stone paper. Thus, we make an infinitely recyclable product, out of waste.

The calcium carbonate is ground to a fine powder and combined with the heated resin. Pneumatic systems work this process. The heated resin ‘glues’ the stone elements together.

This consistency is then blown up in the air, like a balloon. Imagine when you blow air into a balloon, the skin gets thinner and thinner. That’s the way stone paper is formed. Cilinders as high as tall buildings make sure there is enough room for the paper to rise up, until the right thickness (or thinness) is achieved. By pulling the paper up so high, it cools off at the same time. So when the paper cilinders have reached their highest point, the are pulled down again, and rolled up – ready for distribution!

As you can see, no cooling water, no toxins, no difficult drying techniques and most importantly – no trees, are used in this process.