Paper made from crushed stone

TerraSkin: Paper Made from Rock: The treeless new product from Taiwan requires little energy to produce. It's recyclable—and degradable

Used to be bag options at the store were paper or plastic. Now shoppers can choose cloth bags, too. They may have another alternative: rock. Shopping bags and boxes from gift stores at New York's Museum of Modern Art, bags from personal-care company Erno Laszlo, and packaging of consumer products from Burt's Bees look, feel, and fold like paper, but they're made of crushed stone.

The treeless paper, manufactured in Taiwan and sold under the TerraSkin brand, is three parts recycled calcium carbonate—the same mineral in marble and limestone—and one part polyethylene binder. Production requires no water or bleach and only half the energy needed to make traditional paper. The material is durable; tote bags can be used over and over. It is also recyclable. And TerraSkin breaks down into a talcum-like powder if exposed to sunlight and humidity long enough.

Its limitation: Price. Though the raw materials are cheap, sales volumes are low so its manufacturer has to make it in small batches. As a result, it typically wholesales for at least 8% more than packaging paper. Nonetheless, sales will triple in 2009, predicts Design & Source, a New York green packaging company that distributes TerraSkin in North America. Other premium-end customers include Herman Miller (MLHR) and Hilton Hotels. MoMA recently ordered 682,000 TerraSkin shopping bags, which cost 25% more than previous plastic bags. Customers are "blown away by it," says Kathy Thornton-Bias, general manager for MoMA Retail.

Rising sales volume could lower costs, which might attract more customers. "We want to build economies of scale and streamline production process more," says Nicole Smith, environmental director for Design & Source. The company aims to make TerraSkin competitive with paper by 2012. Complicating that task: Coated-paper prices have dipped because of weak demand.

Check the website: http://terraskin.com/