1. Handmade Papermaking in India:
A Sustainable Production System
Vivek Kumar and R. C. Maheswari
Centre for rural Development & Technology
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Hauz-khas, New Delhi-110016
E-mail: vivek150@hotmail.com
Abstract: The paper industry is a forest based industry. Depleting forest cover is a major
cause of concern. This paper highlights the tremendous possibilities of handmade paper
making in India, which with its eco-friendly and environmentally cleaner production
technology will be an appropriate sustainable production system. Handmade paper is
defined as a sheet of paper or board produced by hand. In 1995 the production of
handmade paper and board was 13,000 tonnes valued at Rs. 250 million which is 0.4 %
of the total paper production in India. The export value of handmade paper and products
would be Rs. 70 million, indicating the high potential of the industry as an exportable
commodity. The raw materials used in handmade papermaking are the waste products of
the textile industries, different bast fibres which are locally available and recycled
secondary fibres. Most of the HMP in India use cotton rags, both white and colored or
waste paper. When plant fibres requiring cooking and bleaching are necessary, the
effluent needs treatment. Handmade papermaking units can make many specialty papers,
the demands on which are limited and therefore uneconomical to produce on a
conventional paper machine. In the case of handmade paper the maximum limit of
recycling is almost double, i.e., 8 times, primarily due to milder conditions of processing
the raw material into a sheet of paper. Handmade paper also shows a better strength
isotropy than machine paper. The fibres of handmade paper are shaken in 4 different
directions, while the fibres of machine made paper are only shaken from side to side or
their movement is frozen immediately on twin wire paper machines. Improved formation
can be acheived in handmade paper. Research is also being carried out on the treatment
of final effluent by water hyacinth and natural polyelectrolytes. Possibility of reusing
treated water is also being studied so that “Zero effluent Mill” status can be achieved.
Keywords: Bast fibre, Employment potential, Handmade paper, Sustainable
development, Secondary fibre, Zero effluent
1. Introduction
Misuse of natural resources has come close to testing the earth’s capacity to its limits. In
less than 200 years, the earth has lost six million Km2 of forest. The sediment load from
soil erosion has risen 3-fold in major river basins and 8-fold in smaller and more
intensively used ones, water withdrawals has grown from 100 to 3600 Km2 a year. Yet
the paradox is that a large proportion of the worlds population is poor. One in five hasn’t
got enough food, 25% are without safe drinking water, and millions of children die every
year due to malnutrition and preventable diseases. There is a need to promote and
perfect an ethic for living sustainably. A new kind of development is necessary, coupled

2. with significant changes in attitudes and practices (1). Sustainable development is
meeting the needs of the present without compromising on the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs (2). Basically, sustainable development is a process
in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of
technological development and the institutional charges are all made consistent with
present as well as future needs (3). In 1980, a world conservation strategy was
published. Conservation is both protection and rational use of natural resources. The
conservation strategy has emphasized three objectives, namely:
(i) Essential ecological processes and life support systems must be maintained.
(ii) Genetic diversity must be preserved, and
(iii) Any use of species on ecosystems must be sustainable.
In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development promoted the
understanding of global interdependence and the relationship between economics and the
environment, focusing on the need for sustainable development. The governments agreed
on an “Environmental perspective to year 2000 and beyond” in 1987 defining a broad
framework to guide environmentally sound development. (4)
2. Status of Indian Paper Industry Paper
Industries like steel, cement, chemical and fertilizer, are known for polluting the
atmosphere. Like all manufacturing industries, the pulp and paper sector takes a mixture
of raw materials (wood /non-wood), and processed material (chemicals/fuel) and
converts them into a mixture of furnished and partially finished goods. At all stages of
the processing chain, wastes products are generated. Moreover, the paper industry is
forest based and depleting forest cover is a major cause of concern. However, in India
non-woody material like agro-residue and various grasses are being used as a good
substitute for wood but that is also very high in environmental costs. Examples from
other industrialized nations indicate that it is already too late for the Indian pulp and
paper industry and we shouldn’t wait any longer to take action. The present,
environmentally unfriendly production technology and raw material are two basic issues,
which must be addressed for survival. It’s time for policy makers to think and decide the
future trends of the industry in the coming years. This paper highlights the tremendous
possibilities for handmade paper making in India, which with its eco-friendly and
environmentally cleaner production technology will be an appropriate sustainable
production system (5).
3. Handmade Papermaking in India
Handmade paper is a sheet of paper or board produced by hand. If the sheet is formed by
means of a cylinder mould and vat or on a fourdiner table, it cannot be called a han dmade
paper even if the subsequent operations are carried out discontinuously. It should,
however, be noted that the Khadi and Village Industry Commission (KVIC) includes
paper and boards made in the cylinder mould machine (CMM) with a definite maximum
deckle width of up to 102 cm. The All India Khadi and Village Industries Board was
established in 1953 and it includes the handmade paper industry in its development
program. The above board later became the Khadi and Village Industries Commission
(KVIC), which further encouraged this industry through financial assistance and

3. technological assistance such as introducing new equipment, new techniques, developing
new varieties of paper, utilizing locally available diverse raw materials and helping
entrepreneurs in their marketing efforts. The handmade paper units also enjoy several
fiscal concessions and incentives such as central excise duty and sales tax exemptions in
some States (6). Due to the above supporting program of the KVIC the number of
handmade paper units grew from 35 in 1953 to more than 350 In 1993-94. In 1953, the
value of handmade paper production was hardly Rs. 500,000 but it was more in 1993
than Rs. 150 million. The employment potential of the handmade paper industry is large.
It employs 7,500 people of whom 50% are women. The total wage bill amounts to over
Rs. 42.5 million. Table 1. gives details of the number of units, production and sale
values, employment and wages.
Table 1: Performance of Handmade Paper units
Year No. of working Employment Production Sales Wages
Units in 800 Rs. Lakhs Rs. Lakhs
(100,000s) (100,000s)
1953-54 40 1 5 5 1.7
1960-61 108 4 24 21 9.1
1971-72 176 4 81 87 26.24
1989-90 300 5 724 749 194.0
1990-91 325 6 853 921 256.0
1991-92 344 7 1210 1238 337.0
1992-93 350 7.5 1532 1605 426.0
Source: Review Reports of HMPI
In 1995 the production of handmade paper & board was 13,000 tones valued at Rs. 250
million which is 0.4 % of the total production of paper in India. The export value of
handmade paper and products would be Rs. 70 million, indicating the high potential of
the industry as an exportable commodity.
The handmade papermaking units are scattered throughout the country with more
concentration in U.P., Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Kerala. The capacity of
the units range from 50 kgs to 700 kgs per day. Registered institutions, cooperative
societies, private entrepreneurs and individual artisans own the units. KVIC has an
ambitious national program of increasing the production capacity to 60,000 tonnes
(1.2% of the total projected paper production in India) by the year 2002 (7). Table 2
shows various raw materials used in the handmade paper making.

4. Table 2 : Raw materials used in Handmade Papermaking
S.NO. RAW PROCESS CHEMICAL USED CONDITIONS AVAILABILITY REMARKS
MATERIAL
1. Rag Cooking 3-4% NaOH, 6-8 hrs. White and new rags, old Soda silicate can be used up to 40%,
6-8% Na2CO3 130-1400C whites, threads and color rags when NaOH is being used
or 15%Ca(OH)2 Bath ratio-1:3 from cotton textile industry,
tailors, denim fabric industry
Hypochlorite+ lime and hosiery market
Bleaching or 2-2.5 hrs 80% brightness can be achieved
H2O2+Na2CO3 Ledger paper, Filter paper, Drawing
+Na2SiO3 paper, Bible or Skin
Paper
2. Cotton Pressure Cooking 6-8% NaOH 2-4 hrs. Cotton mills Very high tear strength
linters Bath ratio-1:3
3. Jute and Pressure Cooking NaOH+Na2SO3 as 4 hrs. West Bengal, High strength but very low brightness.
Kenaf 14% Na2O 160-1650C Bihar, Assam Shopping bags, cover, tags, folders etc.
Open Cooking NaOH+Na2SO3 as high as
20% Na2O 8-10 hrs.
4. Kenaf and Open Cooking 15% NaOH+ 2hrs. Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and High tensile strength and brightness
Mesta 5-10% H2O2 Bath ratio-1:10 Tamil Nadu level upto 65% IS0
5. Sun Hemp Pressure NaOH+Na2SO3 - Uttar Pradesh Used in tissue and cigarette tissue paper
Cooking
6. Common Pressure 20% NaOH 4hrs. Herbaceous and -
Hemp Cooking 1450C dioecious plant Produced in
Bath ratio-1:5 India for narcotic as well as
medicinal values

5. Bleaching Hypo, chlorination and then 80% ISO brightness
hypo
7. Sisal Open - 1hrs. Orissa, Kerala Dark in color but impart high porosity
Cooking Bath ratio-1:8 and Karnatka and absorption capacity
8. Banana Soaking Water 20 hrs. Maharashtra, Extremely thin transparent like papers,
Kerala and good quality strong tissues and
Pressure cooking 8% NaOH 2hrs., 1350C Andhra Pradesh decorative papers. Banana pulp is
Bath ratio-1:6 superior to Rag pulp
Bleaching O2 diglinification+
hypochlorite bleaching
Open cooking .05% EDTA+8% 4hrs.
NaOH+2% H2O2 Bath ratio-1:6
9. Ankhada Soaking 15% Na2CO3 70 hrs., 400C Gujrat, Punjab, 94% yield and 49% ISO brightness
Bihar and Rajasthan
30% Na2CO3 139 hrs., 400C 94% yield and 55% ISO
brightness
Bleaching 1%hypo 75% ISO brightness so it is possible to
produce TCF pulp
10. Waste paper Soaking Mild dose of NaOH 12 hrs. Pulp substitutes and high Admix with other high strength pulps
and deinking grade deinking waste
chemicals
5

6. 4. Handmade Paper: A Sustainable Production System
1. The raw materials used in handmade papermaking are the waste products of the
textile industry, different bast fibres available locally and recycled secondary fibres.
Almost all bast fibres, leaf fibres and cotton and linter fibres are from annual plants
and therefore have short renewable cycles.
2. Pulping of these raw materials is based on the use of non-polluting chemicals such as
lime, soda ash, caustic soda, oxalates, oxygen, and peroxides. It is not necessary to
use harmful chemicals like alkali sulphide and sulphite, chlorine and chlorine
compounds for the delignification processes. There is hardly any pollution or
negative impact on environment. Most of the HMP in India uses cotton rags, both
white and colored or waste paper. When white rags are used, there is no cooking and
bleaching and the discharged effluent contains very low levels of BOD and COD,
however the effluent contains considerable fibre debris, which must be removed and
separated. When plant fibres requiring cooking and bleaching are necessary, the
effluent needs treatment. A simple method is to install a few tanks and then treat the
wastewater with lime, which reduces the COD and the AOX content considerably. In
some extreme cases, alum can be added to the effluent to flocculate the color and
COD containing organic substances.
3. Handmade papermaking units can make many of the specialty papers, whose
demands are limited and therefore uneconomical to produce on a conventional paper
machine. These varieties include fancy and decorative base paper, personalized
stationary paper, deckle edge papers, ultra thin backing paper, permanent paper for
museums, archives, and libraries, durable paper for certificates, legal documents etc.
4. Recycling reduces considerably the papermaking potential of pulps. It is generally
agreed that recycling causes a major reduction in breaking length, burst and fold and
a lesser reduction in stretch and apparent density. The principal cause of these
changes is the reduced bonding ability, which in turn is due to reduced fibre swelling.
It is generally said that the maximum recycling limit should be 4 times. In the case of
handmade paper this maximum limit is almost double, i.e., 8 times, due primarily
milder conditions of processing the raw material to a sheet paper.
5. Handmade paper shows a better strength isotropy than machine paper. The fibres of
handmade paper are shaken in 4 different directions, while fibres of machine made
paper are only from shaken side to side or their movement is frozen immediately on
the twin wire type of paper machines. Improved formation can be acheived in
handmade paper. There are less direction-oriented fibres on the sheet.
6. Hands made papers are dried without any restraint and hence have natural shrinkage.
7. Neutral or alkaline sizing with a small percentage of alum or without it enables
production relatively more permanent, semi permanent and durable paper. It has now
been proved, that ancient paper sheets of oriental origin have higher permanency than
those of European origin. This is due to the selection of raw materials as well as their

7. subsequent processing into paper. The long lasting character of handmade paper is
sometimes attributed to gelatin sizing and mild cooking and drying conditions.
5. Problems and Emerging Solutions in HMP Units
Bits of dirt and specks are invariably found in sheets of handmade paper, however in
mottled or decorative papers this is not so serious. But in white or semi white sheets,
such as drawing and art paper or stationery papers it speaks of low quality. The proper
selection of raw materials, careful cleaning of work areas, drying of sheets in covered
halls, a sense of cleanliness and good housekeeping could solve the problem to a great
extent.
Although pride is taken in the fact that no two sheets are the same with HMP, uniformity
in basis weight, color, whiteness and general appearance are important parameters of
quality which can be achieved through a professional and scientific methods of operation.
When chemicals are added to stock, they must be weighed and not simply put into the
beater. To maintain stock consistency, the stock-water level should be maintained by
painting level marks on the beater. The new Japanese method of sheet formation and a
the European method of stock recirculation in the vat are things that can be adopted for
finer varieties of HMP.
For improvement in sheet formation of thinner grades of paper, the use of formation aids
should be taught to the papermakers. The formation aids could be either synthetic
chemicals or preferably vegetative mucilages. The vegetable mucilage controls the fibre
dispersion as well as the drainage rate. Mucilage of Cactus (Opiuntia belloni) has been
tested with good results.
In the present work various locally available plants materials such as the seed of the Ban
Tulsi seed, the wild variety of Bhindi (Ambrettie) etc. are identified and their efficacy on
various fibres is being graded. Ambrettie used with jute and rag fibres have shown very
good results. Similarly, the ban tulsi seed imparts good drainage characteristics. These
aids also improve fibre retention, hence the loss of fibre reduces by up to 50%. Research
is also being carried out on the treatment of the final effluent by water hyacinth and
natural polyelectrolytes. The possibility of reusing treated water is being studied so that
“Zero effluent Mill” status can be achieved.
6. Conclusion
The hand made paper industry with minimum effluent discharge and small size units
allows a large canvas for mill location taking advantage of several options such as
proximity to consumer or exporter centers, easy accessibility for transportation of
supplies and products to various consumer centers, as well as a large employment
potential. As the Indian economy is a rural economy, this production system will not only
stop the wealth drain from rural to urban areas but also establish a strong industrial base
for rural development.

8. References
Caring for the Earth- A strategy for Sustainable Living published by “The World Conservation Union”
UNEP and WWF. Gland, Switzerland. October (1991).
Islam J (1994) Sustainable Development of Pulp and Paper industry: Indian Perspective. IPPTA. 6(1)
Khandekar V, Bhoomaiah, Singh SN, Panda A (1995) Handmade Papermaking in India- Prospects,
Possibilities and Problems. 2nd International Seminar on Pulp & Paper Industry New Delhi December
News Bulletin No. 20, July 1992 of associated industrial Consultants (INDIA) Pvt. Ltd. & Trans
Environ Consultants Pvt. Ltd. Bombay.
Rao NJ. (1992) Sustainable Production of Pulp and Paper in India. IPPTA. 4 (1)
Report of the Conference on Ecologically Sustainable Industrial development. General conference of
UNIDO. Vienna. November (1991).
Review Reports of Handmade Paper Industry published by KVIC (1997).