At Dastkar Nature Bazaar in Bangalore, I noticed most visitors carrying paper totes instead of plastic bags. Vendors were selling goods wrapped in newspaper. Cloth bags were everywhere. On the face of it, it all looked really planet-friendly and all, but when one thought a little more about it — was it?
“Most people opt for paper as an eco-friendly alternative without realising the huge environmental cost of making paper in mills,” said Mahima Mehra, who’s been recycling paper from cotton rags and elephant dung for over 15 years, “in many ways, the difference between a plastic and mill-made paper bag can often just be the difference between choking a fish and killing a tree!” Pulp for large-scale factory production of paper comes from the felling of trees at a corresponding scale, she explained. “What we need,” she said, “are renewable raw materials for paper...”
Just then we noticed a tiny stall tucked away in one corner of the fair. It had paper and stationery products made by Chetna, an organisation that works with the mentally-disabled in Karnataka. Looking to create viable income avenues for the mentally-disabled, the people at Chetna hit upon the idea of making paper and paper products from banana pith. “We’re based in Sirsi, a banana-producing region in Karnataka. When in 2009, we came across a low-tech method of separating layers of banana pith and drying them to a paper or cardboard like consistency — we felt this was something our people could easily do,” said Veena Hegde, who works for Chetna.
Beautifully textured and stiff, banana paper is well suited for a variety of stationery products. The Chetna stall had attractive file covers, boxes, card holders, pens and other things made from banana pith. A little research showed me that banana pith was a viable, environmentally-friendly alternative to wood pulp and cotton rags. Bananas are fast-growing and easily cultivated in different climates. Further, the banana plant fruits only once, so it is cut down after the bananas are harvested. The pith of the banana plant is a rich source of fibre that Hegde and her colleagues at Chetna are trying to utilise. “Traditionally, the banana plant was chopped and thrown into fields as a fertile mulch,” she said, “but we felt it could be a good employment generator as well...”
“We’ve used it to make boxes, file covers and other stationery products, and find it to be not only very durable but also aesthetically a very interesting material to work with,” said Hegde. The organisation has found a lot of support from corporations. “We began receiving so many orders that our original batch of mentally-disabled workers couldn’t cope,” she said, “now we also employ local village women, who work from home.” Today, Chetna makes and sells over 500 file covers and boxes every month. While it’s great going for them, banana paper has much greater potential.
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In 2009, India led the world in banana production, producing 26.2 million metric tones of the fruit. Imagine the amount of banana pith available for use! Also, while Chetna uses peeled and dried pith directly, paper can also be made from pulped banana fibre. In fact Japan’s currency notes are printed on it, and its unique stiffness makes banana paper a popular choice for Indian wedding cards.
As people in Chetna develop new products, we need more R&D on eco-friendly raw materials for paper. Otherwise, instead of choking fish, we’ll continue to fell trees and still feel virtuous about it.