Banana leaves are some of the most versatile materials in the tropics and subtropics. Apart from being a healthy and flavorful addition to food when used for traditional cooking, steaming, and food serving, the eco-friendly disposables are an easy way to bundle up or wrap vegetables and fruit for sale at shops and supermarkets.

The leaves are waterproof, decorative, and flexible, and can be tied and rolled up in various ways with the fresh leaves as wrapping and dried cuttings as strings.

Banana leaves are also occasionally used in Hindu and Buddhist ceremonies, for thatching roofs and fences in tropical areas, and were, along with palm leaves, the primary writing surfaces in the region of ancient South and Southeast Asia.

The leaves of the fast growing plant can be used fresh, refrigerated or frozen, and are biodegradable and compostable.

• Material : banana leaf, fresh and dry

• Usage : wrapping / food packaging

• Cost : very low

• Traditional Purpose : packaging / wrapping

• Life-cycle : disposable / compostable

• Durability : single-use / decomposes fast

• Shelf-life : 1 week if refrigerated, several months if frozen

• Status : In-Use

• Food Safe : yes, for single-use, will decompose over time

• Energy Usage : very low

• Production Effort : farmed / handmade / labor intensive

• Region(s) of Origin : Tropics and Subtropics