A Chinese paper company will soon be producing toilet paper made from giant panda faeces and food scraps, state media said on Wednesday.

Sichuan Qianwei Fengsheng Paper Company has engineered a way to recycle the copious faeces produced daily by the furry residents of the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda in south-west China, Xinhua said.

The company signed a deal with the centre on Monday, according to the news outlet.

Due to pandas’ bamboo-heavy diet, their excrement is fibre rich, the news agency said.

Pandas produce 10 kilos a day of faeces and an another 50 kilos of “food waste” from bamboo left unchewed or spat out, making it ideal raw material for paper products.

The giant panda is one of China’s most iconic animals and the subject of vigorous conservation efforts.

It is classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

(dpa/NAN)