Do bananas need plastic wrap?

Del Monte says its individually wrapped bananas are environmentally friendly. Critics say Del Monte is bananas.

Mon, Mar 07 2011 at 5:51 PM EST

Photo: Valerie Everett/Flickr

See those bananas pictured above? They come in some durable packaging, don’t they? The thick outer skin does a good job of protecting the fruit inside. Most people, when buying a bunch of bananas at the grocery store, don’t even put the bunch in a plastic produce bag. They just put them in the cart, knowing that the skins will protect the bananas from damage and dirt.

Wrapping bananas in plastic is unnecessary. Yet, Del Monte, according to the Daily Mail, is packaging individually wrapped bananas as a Natural Energy Snack on the Go. The bananas are placed in the plastic wrap when they are green and “Controlled Ripening Technology” inside the bag will prolong the life of the banana for six days longer than an unwrapped banana.

Del Monte’s managing director in the U.K. is quoted as saying, “Del Monte’s new CRT packaging is designed to provide significant carbon footprint savings by reducing the frequency of deliveries and the amount of waste going to landfill. The packaging is also recyclable.”

Does anyone else think this is ridiculous? Most of the people who have commented have had the same reaction I did: no wrapper at all has got to be more environmentally friendly than a wrapper that is manufactured and ends up in a landfill or is recycled. As for the recycling, these individually wrapped bananas will be sold in convenience stores. Most people will unwrap them on the way to their car and throw the wrapper in the trash outside the store.

Bananas that have gone bad don’t need to go into a landfill. They can be composted.

What do you think? Do you think there is any merit to the argument that these plastic-wrapped bananas are more environmentally friendly?

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Kim Berg Jensen Today 12:12 PM

In my company we have made a series of test with wraped bananas, the short version is, that bananas not wraped will have a shelf life of 5 - 7 days, wraped bananas i correct laserperforated film can have a shelf life from 12 - 15 days. My campany ScanStore Packaging is 100 % dedicated to laserperforation of packing films for optimum shelf life of produce.

Peter Vella 03/15/2011 04:34 AM

Bananas have wraped themselves with the best natural wrap avaiable. There are a lot ways to use(cook/freeze) bananas as they ripen. Del Monty would be better off to educate the consumer than add another poluting process to there credit .

Danae 03/14/2011 17:21 PM

If they are doing this to reduce waste, and the problem is the peel ending up in a landfill rather than being composted, are they expecting people to eat the banana peel? it simply doubles the waste, except the extra package isn't biodegradable.

Danae 03/14/2011 17:22 PM

Michael 03/10/2011 22:29 PM

The article states that these are individually wrapped bananas to be sold at convenience stores. Convenience stores don't normally sell produce items, but now Del Monte has figured out a way to do so. So really, this isn't going to reduce the frequency of deliveries - that's corporate BS. They'll be making more deliveries because now they'll be delivering to convenience stores. This is all about expanding sales and marketing. Environmentally, it's completely irresponsible. It is very.... More

PattiAnn48 03/10/2011 13:55 PM

Even old bananas have uses. I buy them marked down when 'overripe' and either freeze them for smoothies or use them in muffins. Can banana peels be used for bio-fuel or just compost? Either way it is difficult for city dwellers. Looks like this wrapping thing is just another way to keep the gross national product GROSS.

seuzq 03/09/2011 20:18 PM

Really? Really? I wonder how this is going to benefit my world and i can not see any benefit what so ever? I think I should stop thinking about this at all because it reminds me of April Fools Day.

April 03/09/2011 16:56 PM

This doesn't make any sense. I bring my own bags (even produce bags) because I am trying to reduce waste. They are taking that option away from their customers by pre-wrapping fruits and vegetables.

Anonymous 03/09/2011 15:10 PM

No more plastics. Composting, please.

Anonymous 03/09/2011 11:22 AM

I think it's ridiculous

ALICIA 03/09/2011 11:04 AM

BANANA'S HAVE THEIR OWN "PACKAGING". AND, JUST BECAUSE IT'S RECYCLABLE IT DOESN'T MAKE IT 'ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY. PLASTIC IS PLASTIC! THERE IS POLLUTION IN RECYCLING IT. LEAVE IT ALONE PLEASE. "IF IT'S NOT BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!"

STLDRGN 03/09/2011 10:56 AM

ON ONE HAND I AGREE WITH NATURE KNOWS BEST AND ON THE OTHER HAND I THINK MOST PEOPLE HAVE NO ROOM FOR A GARDEN ,THEREFORE HAVE NO REASON TO COMPOST EITHER,SO THE BANANA WILL END UP IN THE LANDFILL...

jbellegaribay 03/08/2011 20:57 PM

Nature knows best; nature made a banana a strong outer casing to protect its flesh.. ayayayay its such a waste to wrap them individually.

GeoffWakeling 03/08/2011 10:59 AM

I whole-heartedly agree with you on this matter and I personally think its ecologically irresponsible of companies to wrap food items which do not need it. I never buy vegetables or fruit with wrapping as its completely needless.

Good piece Robin!

rationalrevolution 03/07/2011 17:04 PM

In theory, if fewer bananas go bad, then fewer bananas will need to be restocked, so it would lead to overall lower demand for harvested bananas. However, I doubt that Del Monte would want this, although it is possible, and its also possible that they think they could offset that lower demand with higher demand by placing bananas into a different market.

While I am typically very skeptical of such things, this makes some sense to me.

Let's take an example. Let's say that Del Monte.... More

CarSue 03/09/2011 09:04 AM

Food waste happens both in the grocery store and in the private home. Grocers purposely order too much produce so that they will have full--nay, overflowing--produce bins, which are attractive to customers. So groceries generally know that they will incur waste, and yet they purposely order more than they will need. At the same time, people who buy more bananas than they can reasonably eat before they rot (let's say, 7-10 days), or who store bananas improperly (separating bananas from their.... More