How Banana Waste Is Turned Into fabrics?

 

How Banana Waste Is Turned Into fabrics?

 

More than 105 million tonnes of bananas are produced in the world every year. And it is grown in more than 150 countries. It is a popular and widely consumed item.

What’s interesting about bananas is that they are one of the world’s most wasteful crops. Every banana stem only fruits once in its lifetime. After the harvest, its big giant stems are a big problem to the producers.

Farmers typically burn them. Or it end up in the waste lot.

For every one ton of fruit, two tons of plantation debris is formed.

 

Entrepreneurs are seeing an opportunity

Companies and entrepreneurs are seeing huge opportunities in the waste. These free raw materials are being used for making fabrics as an alternative for cotton, linen, silk, and other traditional fabrics. Sustainability is creating more demand for them. Resulting in higher success for these companies and entrepreneurs. So could bananas become a green alternative to cotton or silk?

 

How banana fabric is made?

Step 1: Collect banana plantain stems from farms

Step 2: Cut the stems into celery shared chunks

Step 3: Leave it out to dry in the sun

Step 4: Feed the strands into an automatic extractor

(The extractor separates the strands from stem to form fibers)

Step 5: The extracted fibers are kept drying again

(An ideal time to dye, if required)

Fibers are then turned into yarns and then further processed to form fabrics.

 

Potential in the market

As long as people would eat bananas, there won’t be any shortage of raw materials. The 1000 billion textile industry is under severe pressure from climate activists and governments. They are forced to look for greener alternatives.

Banana fabrics can surely be used for making fabrics. It can also be used for making rugs, mats, hair extensions, arts/handicrafts, cardboards, etc

 

Properties of banana fibers

-         Appearance of banana fabric is similar to bamboo fabrics

-         It is a highly strong fiber

-         It has smaller elongation

-         Banana fibers can have shiny properties depending on the extraction and spinning process

-         It is biodegradable

-         100% natural

-         No negative impact on the environment

 

It is estimated that the banana fiber and textile industry is still at its initial stages. Farmers, activists, entrepreneurs are optimistic about the mass adoption of this material in the coming future.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you think banana fabrics will become mainstream? Comment below.