Banana Leaves as packaging may sound weird for many. For Thai Supermarket, Rimping Supermarket located in Chiangmai, Thailand, this is how they choose to make a difference in the over usage of plastic in the world.
The Supermarket wraps banana leaves around the fruit or vegetable and ties it using a ribbon. They then paste a sticker on the leaf showing the code and the price of the fruit or vegetable. In addition, they have a sticker which reads ‘pesticide safe’ in order to assure the customers that the fruit or vegetables are grown in the most safest way possible.
“These were simple pictures taken of my mobile phone of a what I thought was a great idea.” said Mr. Simon Bradshaw of Perfect Homes Chiang Mai, who took the images of the banana leave wrappings. ” I was certainly amazed when they went viral”
For a country such as Maldives who are trying their hardest in avoiding the usage of plastic products, this would make it so much easier to reduce plastic being used. In addition, as the country is filled with rural islands growing banana plants, the leaves can easily be obtained and used in large stores such as Redwave, Agora and others.
As the new government has plans to reduce single use plastic as part of their first 100 day pledges, this can be a start which will eventually lead to greater changes. As it is, there are several initiatives against single use plastic such as using glass bottles in Guesthouses and Resorts and the ban of plastic bottles in offices such as President’s office. The previously mentioned initiatives show that Maldivians want to bring a change in the over usage of plastic in Maldives and as soon as something is done against it, the remaining part of the population will follow.
