Euronews.green writes that the innovation belongs to Releaf Paper and to the company's founder, Valentyn Frechka, who experimented in the past with using grass and straw to make the cellulose required for making paper. A couple failed experiments later and he figured that, instead, leaves can make for a sustainable cellulose ingredient.

Using different mechanical and chemical processes, the team is now able to turn 2.3 tons of fallen leaves into one ton of cellulose used for making paper products, saving the 17 trees required for this in the process.

"We are working only with the leaves that we are getting from the cities because we cannot use the leaves from the forest. It's not easy to collect them in the forest, and there is no need because there's an ecosystem. In a city, it’s a green waste that should be collected. Really, it's a good solution because we are keeping the balance - we get fiber for making paper and return a lignin as a semi-fertilizer for the cities to fertilize the gardens or the trees. So, it's like a win-win model", the founder explained.

Before using the leaves, they are being cleaned and dried, then compressed into large packages, which allows Releaf Paper to store them around the year.

Besides saving trees from being cut down, the company's process, as per officials, also uses 15 times less water, as well as releases 78% fewer emissions than traditional paper making.

Plus, the company explains, "leaf-based paper degrades in the soil in 30 days, whereas the degradation period for ordinary paper is 270 days or more."

Experts at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) claim that the paper industry consumes 13-15% of the entire wood stocks every year, meaning that efforts from startups such as Releaf Paper could help us prevent cutting down trees if it's not necessary.

Among Releaf's customers are L'Oréal, Samsung, Google and Logitech, all of the companies using paper bags made by the Ukrainian startup. Releaf Paper currently produces 3 million paper bags every month.