From bunch bags to cornerboards – recycling banana plastic
In order to produce export quality bananas, the use of plastic bags to protect the banana bunch is a normal practice in the banana industry. These plastic bags are used only once. In many banana producing countries, like the Dominican Republic and Peru, it is common for the plastic bags to be buried, burned or thrown away at a landfill. In the worst cases, they are left behind on the plantation, on an illegal dumpsite or along the road, as a result of which this can ultimately end up in the soil or water as microplastics.
With this project, Agrofair and its partners were able to recycle banana plastic waste as prime material to manufacture corner boards that are used to fix banana boxes on pallets that are loaded into sea freight containers. In order to produce these corner boards, four sets of machines (shredders and extruders combined) were bought and installed: two for the Dominican Republic and two for Peru. In Peru the company ECOBAN now produces 21 thousand corner boards per month and already collects nearly half of all banana plastic. In the Dominican Republic, due to the specific characteristics of the plastic bunch bags there, it has not been possible to manufacture corner boards of acceptable consistency. Currently, project partners are looking for possibilities to produce other types of product from recycled banana plastic: posts and planks of 'plastic wood'.
The project has been helpful to raise awareness in the banana sector on the challenges related to the use and disposal of plastic waste, and to put this theme on the agenda of the World Banana Forum, the multi-stakeholder platform of the banana export industry under auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Project summary
NL-KVK-27378529-FVOF19009
€ 250,439
Dominican Republic (the), Peru
Implementation
Untied
APOQ, APPBOSA, AVACH, Agro Fair Benelux B.V., BANELINO, CEPIBO, FRUECODOM, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, Plastic Fantastic Coöperatie U.A., Solidaridad Peru, WASTE Coöperatie U.A.
Waste management/disposal