Paper mills in southwest China’s Sichuan Province are turning leftover bamboo from panda bases into useful products in an attempt to eliminate waste.

At Dujiangyan Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas in Sichuan Province, besides carrots and apples, giant pandas eat a large amount of fresh bamboo every day.

“Now, there are 45 giant pandas at our base. The daily bamboo supply is around 1,000 to 1,500 kilograms. Normally the pandas’ bamboo usage rate is around 20 percent,” said Wei Ming, director of the Food Supply Department of the giant panda base.

According to staff members at the base, they collect the leftover bamboo every week and deliver them to local paper mills.

An administrative director from a paper manufacturing company said with the current bamboo fiber papermaking technology, they can turn the leftovers into paper products like base paper, tissue paper and stationery.

“Normally, four tons of fresh bamboo can produce one ton of base paper. We can process nearly 500 tons of leftover bamboo from the giant panda base every year,” said Shen Qunlin, administrative director of Sichuan Fengsheng Paper Technology Co., Ltd.

by CCTV