KENSINGTON, AUSTRALIA —According to researchers at Australia's University of South Wales, banana growing can be a highly wasteful process with 88 percent of the plant being discarded after fruit harvesting.<br /><br />The scientists have designed a new method that reduces this waste by reusing the pseudostem, or the banana's trunk, and turning it into biodegradable packaging.<br /><br />According to the university's press release, the team cut the pseudostem, then dry heated the pieces at low temperatures to remove water.<br /><br />The process extracts cellulose from banana plant cells in powdered form, which is then chemically treated to become the packaging material.<br /><br />According to the researchers, the finished product is a baking paper like polymer that may replace plastic bags and single use commercial containers for meat and fruit.<br /><br />They claimed that tests conducted at the university found the material to be nontoxic and can be recycled up to three times.<br /><br />According to one of the professors involved in the study, bananas are annual plants and could potentially provide a round the year supply of sustainable packaging material.
