Agriculture and Environment: Bananas

Environmental Impacts of Production: Solid Wastes

There are a number of residues and wastes that result from banana production and processing.

These cause environmental problems. The volume of waste produced is at least equal to the volume of bananas produced. Twenty percent of the waste requires special treatment.

Improper disposal of wastes
Yet in Costa Rica the Ministry of Health found that 78% of plantations did not dispose of waste properly (Astorga 1998). A 1996 summary from Costa Rica, shown in Table 1.0 below, illustrates these issues.

Huge piles of organic wastes
There are two main types of solid wastes on banana plantations. The first are the organic remains of the bananas. These wastes include the bananas that are not of sufficient quality to export or even sell on the local market as well as the banana stalks; both are transported to the selection plants where the bananas are washed and boxed for sale.

These wastes are created in such large quantities that they are simply thrown away rather than composted. They are often dumped at the edge of the plantation or in or nearby rivers, where their decomposition can consume the oxygen in the water and result in fish kills.

The IUCN (the World Conservation Union, formerly known as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature) estimates for the organic waste generated by the banana industry in Costa Rica in 1995 supported the information reported in Table 1.0 given below.

The IUCN reported 283,217 metric tons of stalks and 225,525 metric tons of rejected bananas. These amounts were up from 1990 amounts that were, respectively, 152,798 and 121,672 metric tons.


Table 1.0 Residues from Costa Rican Banana Plantations

Type of Residue	MT/Year
Polyethylene bags	4,406
Polyethylene packing material	2,171
Polypropylene twine	2,755
Fruit stems	225,000
Scrap bananas and rejects	278,000
Fertilisers	110,000
Nematicides	8,300

Source: LEAD International 1996.


The second culprit - plastic
The second important form of solid waste associated with bananas produced for export is plastic, including bags, rope, and pesticide containers. Each banana stalk is encased in a thin plastic bag treated with insecticide to keep insects and spiders off the fruit as it ripens. In addition, each stalk of fruit is attached to a pole by plastic twine so that its weight will not pull it over to touch the ground. Both these forms of plastic represent waste disposal problems.

Few programs exist to recycle these products. Because pesticide containers are contaminated, they must be handled separately. In 1995 the IUCN estimated that 4,510 metric tons of plastic bags and 4,832 metric tons of polyethylene rope were generated by Costa Rica's banana industry. These amounts were up from 1990 when the figures were 2,433 and 2,507 metric tons respectively.