Every year in Canada, 30 million tonnes of wheat straw left over from harvesting gets left on farmers’ fields. What if you could turn some of that waste into paper products and alleviate the pressure on forests in the process? The founders of Red Leaf Pulp say they’ve figured out how to make high-quality pulp from agricultural by-products rather than wood from trees, and they’re ready to start producing at scale. The company’s first-of-a-kind pulp mill, slated to begin construction in Regina, Saskatchewan, in the first quarter of 2026, will manufacture what it calls “climate-positive, non-wood pulp” using a process that consumes 95% less water and 70% less energy than traditional mills – all while running on electricity generated by burning biomass from its own waste stream. …Red Leaf also plans to sell the lignin – a component of plant cell walls that gives them their structure – separately as a stand-alone product.