Concept and Project Objectives

18% of the European consumption of bananas is produced in the Canary Islands. Around 10 million banana plants are grown annually in Gran Canaria.

The fibre obtained from the superposed layers of the pseudo-stem is called badana. In the past, the banana plant waste was used as a support element for tomato plants, and, for some decades, it was used in handicrafts such as basket-making and artificial flowers. The plant waste was used as fodder for cattle and goats, but factory farming has replaced it by pre-digested fodder. Today, however, these vegetable wastes are deposited in ravines where they become decomposition material. An estimated 25,000 tonnes per annum of natural fibre is found in this waste.

The main objective of the Badana project is to develop and validate novel procedures for the extraction of 25,000 tonnes per annum of sustainable natural fibre from waste matter derived from banana cultivation in the EU in a manner that does not displace food production. The fibres will be used to develop innovative sustainable rotationally-, injection- or press-moulded thermoplastic composite products.

The project will provide high quality processed banana fibre, through a high-efficiency, economical, environmentally-benign extraction process. Innovative fibre modification and processes will be developed for the production of new rotomoulded composite products with enhanced physical properties compared with other natural-fibre composites containing flax, hemp, sisal, straw, etc.