Banana Fiber

Portland, Oregon

When the team at Citizen Earth Group came together to brainstorm ways to reduce microfiber pollution and to fight climate change, they looked to the low-hanging fruit–literally. They are using agricultural waste from bananas to develop a new material that has a low carbon footprint, is 100% biodegradable both on land and at sea, and sacrifices nothing in performance. It also helps farmers remove their banana stems after the fruit has been harvested, an otherwise costly expense. In addition, as bananas are already grown in large volumes across the world, they can make use of leftover materials while conserving land.