The world continues to find new ways to reduce our reliance on plastic with agritech company Papyrus (ASX: PPY) successfully producing the world’s first food packaging that uses 100% banana fibre. 

The packaging is a Banana Fibre Clam Shell moulded product which was produced at their manufacturing facility in Sharqiyah, Egypt. 

With the successful production of the product, Papyrus now has the ability to scale production where the facility can produce 6,300 clam shells per hour as an alternative to polystyrene or plastic commonly used for food packaging (ie: take away containers). 

“This production proves the capabilities of the Company’s technology utilising banana tree waste to manufacture an array of environmentally superior products – ranging from Veneer, Musa liquid fertiliser and Moulded fibre products with a zero-waste process,” said Papyrus Australia Managing Director, Ramy Abraham Azer. 

Being able to mass-produce the packaging, Papyrus will now be able to use the samples as examples for prospective customers interested in establishing their own line of banana food packaging from the facility. 

As part of their initiatives to minimise waste, the Company also has an offtake agreement in place with the Halim family operation Al Ahram which will also seek to utilise the facility for their own lines of banana food packaging. 

Products produced at the facility are made 100% from the abundance of banana tree trunk waste available around the world as world-first, sustainable technology that displaces plastic packaging by providing alternatives from banana fibre.

On average, one hectare of a banana plantation yields 220 tonnes of waste per year. Globally, there are more than 10 million hectares of banana plantain.