How dope would it be to replace plastic bags with banana leaves in supermarkets? Wait…do you even know what banana leaves are? 🧐 Not like a banana peel
but one of these..
So yeah, this supermarket in Thailand is about to change the whole environmental game with these banana leaves to reduce the number of plastic bags made AND save all the plastic that’s obviously never gonna get recycled.
They even want to use it for produce. You know usually you’ll see your fav veggies and fruits in those thin little bags orrrr they have a roll you can tear em off of. Well instead-they want to wrap the plants up in a banana leaf and secure it using a flexible piece of bamboo. These banana leaves are a great alternative to plastic since the leaf is large, thick and still flexible enough to be folded.
One thing we might need to consider though.. is the cost of plastic versus banana leaves. Now we’ve all heard going GREEN for some strange reason can sometimes be a little more pricey that we thought. For example in tropical regions, banana leaves are readily available locally and they can probably pick some up for free depending on how much one needs. However, in places like Texas the use of banana leaves could be a lot more expensive than plastic; BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO is stop being lazy and use 45 seconds to find local biodegradable products that could be a good alternative if banana leaves aren’t growing in your backyard.
If you’re thinking this idea is just now coming about, it’s not. Banana leaves go back like 4 flats on a Cadillac. There’s some tropical regions in Mexico that wrap tamales in them, Hawaiians use the leaves during pig roasts to protect the pig from the hot lava rocks, andddd they are also used to wrap sticky rice in Southeast Asia.
“The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that by 2050 there will be 12 billion tonnes of plastic in landfills, the environment, and oceans. Of this waste, cigarette butts, plastic drinking bottles, food wrappers, and plastic grocery bags are the biggest contributors.”
Let that sink in……
not plastic.
