Researchers in Australia have devised a method to transform agri-waste from the banana industry into biodegradable, non-toxic, bioplastic.

The technique, developed at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, takes the pseudostems of the banana plant and converts the waste into nanocellulose, which can then be used as a feedstock to create bioplastics. According to the researchers, the actual fruit of the banana tree makes up just 12 per cent of the plant, with the rest discarded as waste. This makes the crop an enticing target for alternative uses, both to reduce waste and provide a solid supply of raw materials for industrial production of bioplastics.
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“What makes the banana growing business particularly wasteful compared to other fruit crops is the fact that the plant dies after each harvest,” said Associate Professor Jayashree Arcot, UNSW School of Chemical Engineering. “We were particularly interested in the pseudostems – basically the layered, fleshy trunk of the plant which is cut down after each harvest and mostly discarded on the field. Some of it is used for textiles, some as compost, but other than that, it’s a huge waste.
“The pseudostem is 90 per cent water, so the solid material ends up reducing down to about 10 per cent. We bring the pseudostem into the lab and chop it into pieces, dry it at very low temperatures in a drying oven, and then mill it into a very fine powder.”

Using a reliable supply of pseudostem material from banana plants grown at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, the UNSW team set to work extracting cellulose to test its suitability as a packaging alternative. When processed, the material has a consistency similar to baking paper and could be used in a number of different formats in food packaging.
“There are some options at this point, we could make a shopping bag, for example,” said Arcot. “Or depending on how we pour the material and how thick we make it, we could make the trays that you see for meat and fruit. Except of course, instead of being foam, it is a material that is completely non-toxic, biodegradable and recyclable.
“If the banana industry can come on board, and they say to their farmers or growers that there’s a lot of value in using those pseudostems to make into a powder which you could then sell, that’s a much better option for them as well as for us.”
Member of Bristol North West Climate Action Group (uk). A non-aggressive meeting point for climate management. This is very encouraging not only because of its use locally but it could establish a climate friendly industry in areas that are currently cultivated to grow bananas only as an edible crop. Coupled with solar power energy gathering on each farm, we begin to see by making use of the whole plant a distinct possibility of a closed loop climate friendly job creating opportunity By the way, I was last inside your gardens in April 2011. Live next door to UoB Botanical Gardens. The Curator is Nick Ray and I was talking to him just a week ago about trees!
Good news and potential for a closed loop production process if on the same farm, solar engergy is used to power the machinery involved in parts of the loop. Local wage packets could be bigger.
Looks good on face value but there are two points that need further consideration:
Firstly, composting the waste plant stems will sequester all of the carbon content without any energy expenditure and associated potential carbon emissions . This is better that carbon neutral, it’s carbon negative. The energy input needed to dry and process the plant material needs to have its associated carbon emissions evaluated before the true benefit can be ascertained.
Seondly, biodegradable materials are usually broken down by bacteria. Is it a good idea to have something that bacteria can live on used for food packaging?
Interesting article. In India, people consume (eat) pserdostem, banana flower. The leaves are used as plates in serving food. The real waste generated from banana tree are: outer layer of banana flower and the peeled banana. Can these waste be used to generate bioplastics?
Wait, a teenager did this on 2016. Elif Bilgin, a 16-year-old girl from Istanbul, Turkey, won $50,000 at the Google Science Fair for her process of turning banana peels into bio-plastic. Just Google it!
And that is because the very first plastic ever was made of plant derived cellulose. That is right, plastics were first biodegradable then the oil industry got its dirty greasy fingers all over it…
Do we get this plastic in Granules and can we add colours to that and also what is the break point for the plastic