Compostable plates made from banana leaves

A Peruvian company has made biodegradable dishes out of banana leaves called Bio Plant. An ingenious alternative to single-use plastic, this invention will help to reduce plastic waste from inevitably polluting the air and oceans.

According to Intelligent Living, the Bio Plant dishes naturally decompose within two months. Containers, dishes and other packaging made from styrofoam take up to 500 years.

Bio Plant gets leaves from banana farmers, as the leaves naturally fall off when pickers remove bananas from a tree.

Bio Plant is the brain child of Chuwa Plant Group. The group have made dishes with paper and cardboard cellulose in the past. Their products, including the banana leaf dishes are heat resistant and can be used for liquid food like soups and broths.

The leader of the Bio Plant project, Josué Soto, explained to Intelligent Living that the group are working closely with small producers in the Peruvian Amazon. In addition to payment, the group are offering farmers technical training to help profit from most of the banana cultivation process, rather than making a loss.

The world’s dependency on plastic is archaic. With an abundance of alternative, biodegradable options on the market there really is no excuse or place for single-use plastics anymore.

We all have the power to make a real change to our plastic waste output, which will only be beneficial to us and the planet.

Landfills in South Africa have been declared a ‘ticking timebomb’ and The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) says 98-million tonnes of waste is deposited across South Africa’s 826 landfill sites every year.