Animal bedding is another application of bagasse fibers which is generally used in poultry farms. The nonwoven and the bedding material (after collecting enough poultry wastes) are easy to layout and can be packed and sold as garden mulch directly. This approach not only promotes production of biodegradable and nutri­tional garden mulches, but also helps ease animal waste management.

4.5.3 Aquaculture

Aquaculture is also one of the useful applications of the nonwoven bagasse fibers. The bagasse fiber nonwovens can be enforced in aquaculture as bank weed control and filtration. Fish cultivation used artificial habitats that can profit the aquaculture system by giving shelter, nutrition, and improvement in water quality. Thus, avail­ability of inexpensive artificial habitat materials can help fish farmers with profits.

4.5.4 Sugarcane Bagasse Paper

For high quality paper making, sugarcane bagasse is one of the most eco-friendly, sustainable, and renewable resources. The bagasse fiber generally used state-of-the-art technology and creates a bagasse pulp which is suitable for high quality paper making. The important application of bagasse fiber can be found in newsprint papers which are produced from 100 % bagasse fiber. High quality office and printing papers generally have a 20 % internal fiber added to ensure that the paper is suitable for all office and print applications.

Paper products fall under the following categories:

1. Paper produced from a non-forest resource (alternative fiber)

2. Paper sourced from a renewable resource (crops are constantly renewed for sugar consumption)

3. Recycled paper (as per FSC’s description of papers which are considered recy­cled, Chiparus 2004)