Paper made from 100% recycled stone?
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I'm spending a couple of days at BioTechX2025, which is in Philadelphia this year. And one of the exhibitors is giving away Karst Stone Paper Notebooks, which have a wrapper telling us that
This reminded me of the "100% grated Parmesan cheese" thing:
"'100% Grated Parmesan Cheese'", 9/5/2017
"Parmesan cheese redux", 11/3/2018
"'Made from 100% VERBed X Y'?", 12/29/2023
And of course Wikipedia's Stone Paper entry tells us that
Stone "paper" consists of roughly 80% calcium carbonate, 18% HDPE and 2% proprietary coating.
where HDPE is high-density polyethylene.
Karst's "made from 100% recycled stone" note is less obviously misleading that Kraft's "100% Grated Parmesan Cheese" label, despite the failure to mention HDPE, since it more strongly suggests that the "100%" binds to the adjacent adjective.
And at this point informed consumers may be prone to suspect the syntax and semantics of all "100% VERBed X Y" claims. Or at least they should be…
Luke said,
September 17, 2025 @ 8:48 am
So…it's 20% plastic. That's disappointing. I have a notebook of this stuff I got years ago and I like it, but this makes me a bit less enthusiastic.
bks said,
September 17, 2025 @ 9:04 am
Still finding new uses for limestone after 10,000 years. It's a concrete world.
Seonachan said,
September 17, 2025 @ 9:22 am
So it's (supposedly) both 100% recycled and 100% recyclable. The latter is an easy claim to make; theoretically, anything is recyclable if you can find a use for it, but the plastic component probably makes it a much more complicated and costly process than the implied claim.
But I'm more curious about the "100% recycled stone" claim: what prior purpose was the stone put to that it was then given a second life as paper? Their website doesn't specify, but does say they don't "pull it from the earth's crust or the ocean floor."
Seonachan said,
September 17, 2025 @ 9:27 am
Ah, I see now in their FAQ section:
"We gather it from waste quarries and waste from the construction industry."
Rodger C said,
September 17, 2025 @ 9:42 am
I was just about to say, "They sweep it off the floor in limestone mills."
Gregory Kusnick said,
September 17, 2025 @ 9:57 am
Reminds me of the old Firesign Theatre gag:
"Comes complete with factory air-conditioned air from our fully equipped, factory air-conditioned factory."
David L said,
September 17, 2025 @ 3:35 pm
Friction-free writing? Without friction, you wouldn't be able to get any ink onto the paper. And if you did, it would slide right off again.
bks said,
September 18, 2025 @ 6:38 am
Nothing new under the sun:
When you cross the Yarden to the land Adonai your God is giving you, you are to set up large stones, put plaster on them, and, after crossing over, write this Torah on them, every word — so that you can enter the land Adonai your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Adonai, the God of your ancestors, promised you. When you have crossed the Yarden, you are to set up these stones, as I am ordering you today, on Mount ‘Eival; and put plaster on them. (Deuteronomy 27:2-4)
amy said,
September 21, 2025 @ 1:02 am
As the Wikipedia entry for calcium carbonate mentions, it is a common filler for plastic products because it's so cheap. No surprise that this "paper" has a texture and appearance like a cheap crinkly plastic produce bag… only even more paper-like.
Andrew Usher said,
September 22, 2025 @ 8:22 pm
[quote]As the Wikipedia entry for calcium carbonate mentions, it is a common filler for plastic products because it's so cheap.[/quote]
And it's used a filler for _paper_, even more pertinently, so that's nothing [i]new[/i].
Andrew Usher said,
September 22, 2025 @ 8:23 pm
As usual, attempts at markup don't work here, and I should stick to plain ASCII.
Benjamin E. Orsatti said,
September 23, 2025 @ 7:03 am
"[BLOCKQUOTE]…[/BLOCKQUOTE]"
[BLOCKQUOTE]Lorem ipsum florem gypsum[/BLOCKQUOTE]
This is literally the only HTML I know.
Benjamin E. Orsatti said,
September 23, 2025 @ 7:03 am
[blockquote] Evidently, I don't even know that… [/blockquote]
Andrew Usher said,
September 24, 2025 @ 7:42 am
Perhaps try angle brackets?
One two three four
Five six seven eight …
Andrew Usher wrote:
Michael Watts said,
September 24, 2025 @ 5:50 pm
I've never really understood the LL position that it's impossible for additives to be part of cheese. Cheese isn't an element. If you put something into it, then… you've made a more complex cheese.
Compare the question of "is menstrual 'blood' actually blood?", to which the answer is "there is no such concept as 'actually blood'."
To me "100% grated parmesan cheese" suggests that the product doesn't combine the parmesan cheese with some other type of cheese, making it distinct from e.g. Colby Jack.
Michael Watts said,
September 24, 2025 @ 5:59 pm
For another example, if a package of meat was advertised as "100% sliced salami", would anyone here object that it contained peppercorns?
Michael Watts said,
September 25, 2025 @ 3:10 am
In fact, here's a recipe which "Two Guys and a Cooler" are proud to label "100% beef salami": https://twoguysandacooler.com/making-a-100-beef-salami/
As anyone who desires to follow this recipe is sure to notice, the ingredients include beef, salt, "insta cure #2", garlic powder, black pepper, sugar, milk powder, some "flavor of italy" bacterial starter culture, and "mold 600".
None of this detracts from the product being "100% beef salami", because all of the meat in the salami is beef. Similarly, all of the cheese in "100% grated parmesan cheese" is parmesan cheese.