Asian Supermarkets Go Back To Using Leaves Instead Of Plastic

It should be one of the main goals in today's society to reduce plastic consumption and to educate people on the environmental and global changes and problems that we are currently facing. Even though many of us believe that recycling will solve the problem, and continue using plastic, it is actually the complete opposite. In 2013, 254 million tonnes of trash was produced in the U.S. alone, and only around 30% was recycled. This means that the rest ended up in a landfill and will stay there for up to 1000 years creating toxic gas, polluting the earth and even ending up in the oceans killing many innocent creatures. Since most of us don't get to see the reality, which is often hidden from us, there is an important task to educate people and to open their eyes to understand that the plastic packaging that we use for a couple of seconds will take up to 1000 years to decompose.

More info: Perfect Homes Chiangmai

This type of packaging is not only cost-efficient it also saves so much plastic that would otherwise be recycled or would end up in a landfill.

Recently, China has stopped importing trash from all over the world and concentrated on recycling their own waste. Before this, over 30% of the world's waste would end up in China causing a popular belief that Asian countries are those responsible for creating the majority of the waste in the world. Now, Asian countries, including Vietnam and Thailand, are looking for new ways to avoid plastic at all. This became a solid ground for new business ideas. One of those ideas was a new, eco-friendly way to pack their goods by avoiding plastic packaging.

One of their team members noticed a creative way to reduce plastic that a supermarket called Rimping Supermarket was using and decided to capture their shelves with their phone. Little did they know that people from all around the world would absolutely love this idea and would start sharing it like crazy. "We just popped in to get a few items while we were waiting to sign some contracts with our lawyer, who was delayed, so we were not even meant to be there at that time. When I noticed the veg wrapped in banana leaves and simply liked the idea ad showed my wife who picked a few up to buy. I thought I would take a few pictures and just post to the page, and that was it," in an interview with Bored Panda said one of the Perfect Homes Chiangmai's team members who took these pictures.

With more than 3.5 million views and over 17 thousand shares, the idea became something people can encourage more supermarkets to implement. "I had no idea it was going to go viral, I was shocked when it hit 20 shares. It was not until the morning while I was in the gym that I started to realised what was happening, I pointed out to Stig my friend that it had now something like a thousand shares ad that this was crazy. Once we had finished the session an hour later it had nearly doubled that is when it really started to go off!"

Some have noticed that not everything on the shelves is completely plastic-free, to which the supermarket responded that they are taking one step at a time and trying their best, but it's not that easy. Many products come to the supermarkets pre-packaged and many companies are interested in wrapping their produce in plastic since it is the cheapest and the easiest option. "I feel it is now up to the shoppers to show the supermarket which they prefer. Because without a doubt if every one opts for the banana leaf packaging then they will stop stocking the items in plastic and this will also drive other great ideas forward."

Now, more than ever, people are starting to understand the terrible state our planet is in. If you want to learn more, you can check our post about positive initiatives that people from all around the world are taking in order to help our earth, as well as a list of genius zero-waste ideas you can implement in your daily life.